[ 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.
Gore VidalI came out of Capitol Hill. Well, that's just not an ordinary background for a writer of the ordinary American sort.
Gore VidalI write in different styles because I hear different voices in my head. It would be boring to have always the same voice, point of view.
Gore VidalBetween Malraux, Balzac, and Montaigne, I choose Montaigne. Montaigne will survive all the others, because the essay, meaning direct communication between the writer and his reader, will outlast the novel, by at least a thousand years.
Gore Vidal