You hear all this whining going on, "Where are our great writers?" The thing I might feel doleful about is: Where are the readers?
Interpretation
This quote suggests a concern about the lack of readership rather than the absence of talented writers.
Gore Vidal's quote highlights an underlying issue in the literary world: while people often lament the absence of great writers, it is equally important to recognize the diminishing interest in reading. It implies that the vitality of literature depends on an engaged and attentive readership, and without them, even the greatest writers may struggle to find their place in a society that values other forms of entertainment over reading.
In practice
During a literary event, one might say, 'Gore Vidal once pointed out the real concern lies not in the absence of great writers but in the lack of readers.'
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.
One was a book thief. The other stole the sky.
A lot of people have no idea that right now Y.A. (young adult). is the Garden of Eden of literature.
For me, life without literature is inconceivable. I think that Don Quixote in a physical sense never existed, but Don Quixote exists more than anybody who existed in 1605. Much more. There's nobody who can compete with Don Quixote or with Hamlet. So in the end we have the reality of the book as the reality of the world and the reality of history.
By God, if women had written stories, As clerks had within here oratories, They would have written of men more wickedness Than all the mark of Adam may redress.
Hemingway is terribly limited. His technique is good for short stories, for people who meet once in a bar very late at night, but do not enter into relations. But not for the novel.
Only in books has mankind known perfect truth, love and beauty.
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