Gore Vidal Quotes

If you want to know all about Andy Warhol, just look at the surface of my paintings and films and me, and there I am. There's nothing behind it.

I love Andy Warhol!

You know, one of the only times I ever wrote about art was the obituary of Warhol that I did for the Village Voice.

Such is the vastness of his genius that he can outwit even himself.

I'm interested in all kinds of art. I draw and paint and don't know how to play the banjo, but I do play the banjo.

Warhol was the ultimate voyeur, constantly observing people through the lens. He watched and listened, but did not participate. Behind the camera, Warhol was in control.

To think, and to feel, constitute the two grand divisions of men of genius - the men of reasoning and the men of imagination.

The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.

Take an exhibit, in the days when we saw the Pop art - Andy Warhol and all that - tomato soup cans, etc., and coming home, you saw everything like A. Warhol.

A possible link between 'madness' and genius is one of the oldest and most persistent of cultural notions.

The art world is filled with vibrancy.

I'm not a mad genius.

Cecil Beaton was Andy Warhol before Andy Warhol, really.

The imagination of the genius vastly surpasses his intellect; the intellect of the academic vastly surpasses his imagination

He [Andy Warhol] engaged people and I think all of that is what helped keep him keyed in to the times beyond all of the celebrity stuff that was going on around him. He was much more like a fan than a celebrity himself.

A large section of the intelligentsia seems wholly devoid of intelligence.

Pop art is a way of liking things.

I could write an entirely new book about Andy Warhol, but I don't think I will. I certainly don't think Nancy Reagan would like that, as she's been patiently waiting for Volume 2 of my chronicle of the life of her and Ronnie.

Andy [Warhol] put on his fey kind of act, but he wanted to be number one and he succeeded. But you never know. Fifty years from now he might not be seen as so important, but the way our whole culture has gone, and the way it continues to go, is his way - for better or for worse.

Intelligence is not creative; judgment is not creative. If a sculptor is nothing but skill and mind, his hands will be without genius.

You know very well that I no longer think. I am far too intelligent for that.

His hypothesis goes to this - to make the common run of his readers fancy they can do all that can be done by genius, and to make the man of genius believe he can only do what is to be done by mechanical rules and systematic industry. This is not a very feasible scheme; nor is Sir Joshua sufficiently clear and explicit in his reasoning in support of it.

Genius is mainly an affair of energy, and poetry is mainly an affair of genius; therefore a nation whose spirit is characterized by energy may well be imminent in poetry - and we have Shakespeare.

You're a genius! And the proof is that both common people and intellectuals find your work completely incoherent.