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Quote by Gore Vidal

“Between 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.”

Quote by Gore Vidal

Author

Gore Vidal

American writer, playwright, screenwriter, and critic. Known for his sharp political satire and profound historical insight, Vidal's work spans a variety of genres including novels, plays, screenplays, and criticism. more

“Writing of history is our only heuristic principle. The Germans have a word for it, einfühlen. It is the ability to experience the past in the present and to recreate it. In my books, I have tried to recreate it in the most natural way possible: History must be integrated into the story without the weight of premonition.”

Way Writing Book Stories Past Natural Ability Principles Weight Integrated Premonition Heuristics

Author:Gore Vidal

“The world came so close to self-destruction during my lifetime. I was serving in the American Army, in the Pacific, at the time they bombed Hiroshima and then Nagasaki, and I felt there something like a foretaste of the end of the world.”

World Ends Self Felt Destruction Army Lifetime Serving End Of The World Pacific Self Destruction Hiroshima American Army

Author:Gore Vidal

“Memory is strange. Scientifically, it is not a mechanical means of repeating something. I can think a thousand times about when I broke my leg at the age of ten, but it is never the same thing which comes to mind when I think about it. My memory of this event has never been, in reality, anything except the memory of my last memory of that event. This is why I use the image of a palimpsest - something written over something partially erased - that is what memory is for me. It's not a film you play back in exactly the same way. It's like theater, with characters who appear from time to time.”