This paper reports the electrical characteristics of polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVPy) and the performance of organic thin-film transistors (OTFTs) with PVPy as a gate insulator. PVPy shows a dielectric constant of about 3 and contributes to the upright growth of pentacene molecules with $15.3AA$ interplanar spacing. OTFT with PVPy exhibited a field-effect mobility of 0.23 $cm^2$/Vs in the saturation regime and a threshold voltage of -12.7 V. It is notable that there was hardly any threshold voltage shift in the gate voltage sweep direction. Based on this reliable evidence, PVPy is proposed as a new gate insulator for reliable and high-performance OTFTs.