I have never understood why Gore Vidal insists on mistaking insolence for wit. by William F. Buckley Jr.

Truman, the only thing more dramatic than your gossip was your exit.

Because if I used your method, William, the sentence would still be warming up when the decade ended.

Please, you two are just competing to see who can sound more expensive while being unbearable.

Fine, gentlemen: the debate is settled, and sadly for you both, brevity remains undefeated.

That is unfair to semicolons, which at least know when to stop.

William, you talk like a semicolon in a dinner jacket.

A dazzling remark from a man who treats malice like a leisure activity.

And yet somehow he still arrived at the point faster than either of you.