R. I. P(?). Gore Vidal
Posted: Wed Aug 01, 2012 10:05 am
From http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/home3/5460 ... y.html.csp :
- he was widely admired as an independent thinker — in the tradition of Mark Twain
- He wrote in the memoir "Palimpsest" that he had more than 1,000 "sexual encounters," nothing special, he added
- His works included hundreds of essays; the best-selling novels "Lincoln" and "Myra Breckenridge"; the groundbreaking "The City and the Pillar," among the first novels about openly gay characters; and the Tony-nominated play "The Best Man," revived on Broadway in 2012.
The SLT forgot to list "Live from Golgotha" :
Some of his quotes:
-
[asked to describe himself in one word] Realist. -
The idea of a good society is something you do not need a religion and eternal punishment to buttress; you need a religion if you are terrified of death. -
I'm a born-again atheist. -
Politics is made up of two words: "Poli," which is Greek for "many," and "tics," which are bloodsucking insects. -
[regarding the US being an empire] It is a pointless empire, which gives a satirist like me great pleasure, the fact that nothing makes any sense. -
[interview on Swedish radio, 2004] We pay large taxes to the government. The rich don't but the average working person does. We're the only First-World country that gets nothing back. There's no health service. The educational system is pre-Copernicus. It's a scandal. But the Americans don't know it because they have never been told about other countries. They just know they're bad. -
[on America during the George W. Bush years] Never have so many things gone so wrong all at once. ... last but not least
- I find stupidity very exciting. And I'm excited all day long.