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I suppose that one is always tempted to challenge those who think that they and they alone possess the truth or the way or the key to the mystery.

Gore Vidal

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Gore Vidal
Age: 86 †
Born: 1925
Born: October 3
Died: 2012
Died: July 31
Actor
Essayist
Journalist
Literary Critic
Non-Fiction Writer
Novelist
Opinion Journalist
Playwright
Politician
Prosaist
West Point
New York
Eugene Luther Gore Vidal
Gor Vidal
Cameron Kay
Eugene Luther Vidal
Edgar Box
Katherine Everard
Eugene Vidal
Think
Challenge
Thinking
Keys
Mystery
Challenges
Alone
Truth
Tempted
Way
Possess
Always
Suppose

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I have never been particularly impressed by the self centered musings of my fellow writers.
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To a born-again atheist like myself, it is clear that each of us has multiple selves, talents, perceptions. But to the Roman Catholic, unity is all.
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To bring into the world an unwanted human being is as antisocial an act as murder.
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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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Nonprofit status is what created the Bible Belt. The tax code brought religion back to this country.
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You know, I've been around the ruling class all my life, and I've been quite aware of their total contempt for the people of the country.
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To speak today of a famous novelist is like speaking of a famous cabinetmaker or speedboat designer. Adjective is inappropriate to noun.
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From the age of 1 to 6 there is a small percentage that is exclusively homosexual, a small percentage heterosexual and there's a wide band in the middle of people who respond to various stimuli. A little bit here, a little more there.
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True wisdom is to know the extent of what you don't know quite as well as you know what you do know.
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This separation was absolute in our original Republic. But the sky-godders do not give up easily. In the 1950s they actually got the phrase In God We Trust onto the currency, in direct violation of the First Amendment.
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There's no such thing as a war against terrorism. It's idiotic. These are slogans. These are lies. It's advertising, which is the only art form we ever invented and developed.
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When anyone says to me, 'Can you keep a secret?' I say, 'Why should I, if you can't?'
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Sex was a great no-no for Americans, so that was obviously an attraction to the writers, and since sex is a great part of most people's lives, it's a great subject.
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Half of the American people have never read a newspaper. Half never voted for President. One hopes it is the same half.
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I came out of Capitol Hill. Well, that's just not an ordinary background for a writer of the ordinary American sort.
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Everybody likes a bit of gossip to some point, as long as it's gossip with some point to it. That's why I like history. History is nothing but gossip about the past, with the hope that it might be true.
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Apparently, a democracy is a place where numerous elections are held at great cost without issues and with interchangeable candidates.
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Celebrities are invariably celebrity-mad, just as liars always believe liars.
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[ New York ] is a place that worships incompetence particularly if it's combined with energy and paranoid self-confidence. Only in a city like New York could Truman Capote have made it, or John Simon.
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Since I ought to be arrogant, impressed with my social position, overwhelmed by my beauty, therefore I am. Actually I was never my own type so I completely missed my beauty all through my youth. I have no social position and I stay away from what is known as society as much as possible. But people like to re-invent you, according to cliché.
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