5 Gore Vidal Quotes on Truth

Gore Vidal quotes on truth

17. My father had a deep and lifelong contempt for politicians in general ('They tell lies,' he used to say with wonder, 'even when they don't have to').

35. As societies grow decadent, the language grows decadent, too. Words are used to disguise, not to illuminate, action: you liberate a city by destroying it. Words are to confuse, so that at election time people will solemnly vote against their own interests.

39. Celebrities are invariably celebrity-mad, just as liars always believe liars.

75. People in my situation get to read about themselves whether they want to or not. It's generally wrong. Or oversimplified - which is sometimes useful.

76. For a writer, memory is everything. But then you have to test it; how good is it, really? Whether it's wrong or not, I'm beyond caring. It is what it is. As Norman Mailer would say, 'It's existential.' He went to his grave without knowing what that word meant.