Encounters: Gore Vidal at Montreal
Gore Vidal’s Julian is one of the finest epistolary novels I’ve ever read. Listening to him in Montreal, I reverted to the habits of my journalistic days and took out my notebook:
“Better to expect bad behaviour than to be surprised by it.”
“If you expect the worst you’re never going to be disappointed by the United States.”
“Obama is one of the better Presidents of recent times; much brighter than the people he is obliged to represent.”
On Truman Capote: “He was a compulsive liar which made him very popular in the United States. Our journalists think lying is the ultimate truth.”
On Jackie Onassis: “Consanguinity requires me to talk of relatives only in guarded terms as they all have numerous lawyers.”
“Cemeteries are the most beautiful things in America; I know more people in them than outside.”
You picked some great ones from a writer who’s witty and sharp, even at 85!
Thank you for taking these notes at Gore Vidal’s appearance in Montreal.
Unlike all other branches of modern literature, the novel has no specific art form. The novel is a prose of modern life which is a reflection of real social life. The author’s own interpretation of life is revealed through the novel. One of the features of the novel Sahitya Sarkar is the expression of a prominent life-philosophy. I love novel