Gore Vidal

It's odd to meet a rather elderly man who says, 'I've been reading you all my life.' It makes you feel a slight chill. ”

Envy is the central fact of American life. ”

Sex is. There is nothing more to be done about it. Sex builds no roads, writes no novels and sex certainly gives no meaning to anything in life but itself. ”

Because there is no cosmic point to the life that each of us perceives on this distant bit of dust at the galaxy's edge... there is all the more reason for us to maintain in proper balance what we have here. Because there is nothing else. No thing. This is it. And quite enough, all in all. ”

As for civil liberties, any one who is not vigilant may one day find himself living, if not in a police state, at least in a police city. ”

Think of the earth as a living organism that is being attacked by billions of bacteria whose numbers double every forty years. Either the host dies, or the virus dies, or both die. ”

To preserve the human race, it is now necessary to reorganize society. To this end, an Authority must be created with the power to control human population, to redistribute food, to purify air, water, soil, to re-pattern the cities. ”

Both Marx and Christ agree that in this life, a right action is consideration for the welfare of others. ”

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. ”

I could be a lot happier. I could be the senator from Aerospace taking bribes, and be quite happy. ”