On 16 September 1985, when the Commerce Department announced that the United States had become a debtor nation, the American Empire died.
GORE VIDALIn writing and politicking, it’s best not to think about it, just do it.
More Gore Vidal Quotes
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That loyal retainer of the Chase Manhattan Bank, the American president.
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Like the TV networks, once our government has a hit, it will be repeated over and over again.
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As a schoolboy, I read most of Carl Sandburg’s six-volume biography of Abraham Lincoln.
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Writing fiction has become a priestly business in countries that have lost their faith.
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The more money an American accumulates, the less interesting he becomes.
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I am a novelist turned temporary adventurer, and I chose to write television, movies and plays for much the same reason that Henry Morgan selected the Spanish Main for his peculiar – and not dissimilar – sphere of operations.
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As the age of television progresses the Reagans will be the rule, not the exception. To be perfect for television is all a President has to be these days.
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What other culture could have produced someone like Hemingway and not seen the joke?
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Why not just eliminate the federal income tax?
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Since we have literally targeted our enemies, the Pentagon assumes that, sooner or later, rogues will take out our cities, presumably from spaceships.
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I’m a fervent foe of water pollution, whether it is our own Hudson River or Philadelphia’s tap water.
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By the time a man gets to be presidential material, he’s been bought ten times over.
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What the police in their ignorance have not figured out is that they have lost all credibility since World War II. They are sort of parasites on the fringe of society and do no particular good for anyone except possibly themselves.
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You hear all this whining going on, ‘Where are our great writers?’ The thing I might feel doleful about is: Where are the readers?
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To a man, ornithologists are tall, slender, and bearded so that they can stand motionless for hours, imitating kindly trees, as they watch for birds.
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