# Quote — Gore Vidal, United States

> We do not, of course, write literary criticism at all now. Academe has won the battle in which Wilson fought so fiercely on the other side. Ambitious English teachers now invent systems that have nothing to do with literature or life but everything to do with those games that must be played in order for them to rise in the academic bureaucracy. Their works are empty indeed. But then, their works are not meant to be full. They are to be taught, not read. The long dialogue has broken down. Fortunately, as Flaubert pointed out, the worst thing about the present is the future. One day there will be no... But I have been asked not to give the game away. Meanwhile, I shall drop a single hint: Only construct!

- Author: [Gore Vidal](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gore-vidal.md)
- Book: [United States](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gore-vidal/united-states.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Gore_Vidal#United_States_-_Essays_1952%E2%80%931992_(1992)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/gore-vidal/united-states/we-do-not

## More from this book

> Current is also outraged by a reference to Lincoln's bowels, whose 'frequency,' he tells us, 'cannot be documented.' But, of course, they can. 'Truth-teller' Herndon tells us that Lincoln was chronically constipated and depended on a laxative called bluemass. Since saints do not have bowels, Current finds all this sacrilegious; hence 'wrong.'

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gore-vidal/united-states/current-is-also.md)

> World events are the work of individuals whose motives are often frivolous, even casual.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gore-vidal/united-states/world-events-are.md)

> Basler finds my Lincoln the 'phoniest historical novel I have ever had the pleasure of reading.'... Also, 'more than half the book could never have happened as told.' Unfortunately, he doesn't say which half. If I knew, we could then cut it free from the phony half and publish the result as Basler's Vidal's Lincoln.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gore-vidal/united-states/basler-finds-my-lincoln.md)