At a certain age, you have to live near good medical care β if, that is, you're going to continue. You always have the option of not continuing, which, I fear, is sometimes nobler.
Interpretation
This quote reflects on the choices we face regarding life and death, particularly as we age and require medical support.
Gore Vidal's quote speaks to the difficult decisions individuals encounter as they age and confront their mortality. By suggesting that living near good medical care is essential for those who wish to prolong their lives, he underscores the reality of aging. However, he also presents the notion that opting not to continue life can be a noble choice, alluding to the dignity in acceptance of one's fate rather than solely the pursuit of longevity.
In practice
During a discussion on aging, one might quote Vidal to emphasize the importance of medical care.
We must declare ourselves, become known; allow the world to discover this subterranean life of ours which connects kings and farm boys, artists and clerks. Let them see that the important thing is not the object of love, but the emotion itself.
American writers want to be not good but great; and so are neither.
Writing fiction has become a priestly business in countries that have lost their faith.
The important thing is not the object of love, but the emotion itself.
For the average American, freedom of speech is simply the freedom to repeat what everyone else is saying and no more.
Ayn Rand's 'philosophy' is nearly perfect in its immorality, which makes the size of her audience all the more ominous and symptomatic as we enter a curious new phase in our society.... To justify and extol human greed and egotism is to my mind not only immoral, but evil.
Well the themes for me were and remain sex and love and grief and death - the things that make us and undo us, create and destroy, how we breed and disappear and the emotional context that surrounds these events.
All the persons of faith I know are sinners, doubters, uneven performers. We are secure not because we are sure of ourselves but because we trust that God is sure of us.
How small life is here and how big nothingness. The sky, tired of light, has given everything to the snow. The two trees bow their heads to each other. Clouds cross the worldβs silence in a circle dance
The American Dream has run out of gas. The car has stopped. It no longer supplies the world with its images, its dreams, its fantasies. No more. It's over. It supplies the world with its nightmares now: the Kennedy assassination, Watergate, Vietnam.
The hour of departure has arrived and we go our ways; I to die, and you to live. Which is better? Only God knows.
I guess my overall life plan is to think about issues that concern me and try to use culture generally to make sense of them. I'm more worried that I'm going to die before I've had time.
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