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Washington, D.C. is a 1967 novel by Gore Vidal. The sixth novel in his Narratives of Empire series of historical novels, it begins in 1937 and continues into the Cold War, tracing the families of Senator James Burden Day and influential newspaper publisher Blaise Sanford. This book is the least historical of the seven books. The seventh book in the series, The Golden Age, takes place during the same span of years with many of the same characters as Washington, D.C. The novel is written in the third person and is inspired by the novels of Henry James.
“Immediately seek shelter in the closest office. Remain quiet and await further directions.”
“Too small to be a state but too large to be an asylum for the mentally deranged.”
“If I wanted to go crazy I would do it in Washington because it would not be noticed.”
“Somebody once said that Washington was a city of Northern charm and Southern efficiency.”
“This is truly the capital... And the capital of the most important nation in the world—so there is more protocol here... If you want to know who next U.S. president will be, you cannot stay within the beltway... I always tell my staff that this is a big country with a history.”
“We start from scratch, every generation. History does not bend inevitably toward justice, or freedom, or decency, or even stability. History doesn’t do that in Hong Kong, or in Moscow, or in Washington or New York City or Los Angeles. History goes where we push it. And if we don’t push, someone else will.”
Quotes via Wikiquote (CC BY-SA), each with its original source.