Kurt Vonnegut Quotes

Harry closed his eyes. He never wanted to open them again. His heart sent this message to his molecules: "For reasons obvious to all of us, this galaxy is dissolved!

The most important message of a crucifix, to me anyway, was how unspeakably cruel supposedly sane human beings can be when under orders from a superior authority.

Now, the engineers and managers believe with all their hearts the glorious things their forebears hired people to say about them. Yesterday's snow job becomes today's sermon.

The champagne was dead. So it goes.

In those days great teachers at Shortridge [High School] were celebrities. I would look up to them.

I wasn't aware of Ku Klux Klan as I was aware of the widespread assumption that African-Americans were dumber than white people. I think my father believed that. I think everybody white did.

It often is a terrible insult to some families if one of the kids turns out to be an artist and that's one way to really shake up the family if you haven't got nerve enough to turn into a homosexual.

Everybody knows that the dumbest people in any American university are in the education department, and English after that.

I thought scientists were going to find out exactly how everything worked, and then make it work better.

I know of very few people who are dreaming of a world for their grandchildren.

You say what you have to say. But you have to learn to say it in such a way that the reader can see what you mean.

We are here for no purpose, unless we can invent one.

Most kids can't afford to go to Harvard to be misinformed.

My father said, ‘When in doubt, castle.’

A nice thing about war-not that anything about war is nice, I guess-is that while it's going on and you're in it, you never worry about doing the right thing.

Cigarettes are a classy way to commit suiside.

I am the victim of a fortunate series of accidents.

all that has changed, in my opinion, is that, thanks to television, we can hide a great depression. we may even be hiding a third world war

the late twentieth century will go down in history, i'm sure, as an era of pharmaceutical buffoonery.

It is almost always a mistake to mention Abraham Lincoln. He always steals the show.

There were creative-writin g teachers long before there were creative-writin g courses, and they were called and continue to be called editors.

I am better now. Word of honour: I am better now.

What can any one person do?' he said. 'Each person does a little something,' I said, 'and there you are.

Everything of mine which has been filmed so far has been one character short, and that character is me.

That's what my books are, now that I'm a grownup - mosaics of jokes.

So let's give another big tax cut to the super-rich. That'll teach bin Laden a lesson he won't soon forget.

Puny man can do nothing at all to help or please God Almighty, and Luck is not the hand of God.

Only in books do we learn what’s really going on.

Oh, God — the lives people try to lead. Oh, God — what a world they try to lead them in.

I'm not a drug salesman. I'm a writer." "What makes you think a writer isn't a drug salesman?

I am a monopolar depressive descended from monopolar depressives. That's how come I write so good.

The slaves were simply turned loose without any property. They were easily recognizable. They were black. They were suddenly free to go exploring.

Nice, nice, very nice.

If you're so smart, why aren't you rich?

Love is where you find it. I think it is foolish to go looking for it, and I think it can often be poisonous.

If you can do no good, at least do no harm.

You become who you pretend to be.

A lot of critics think I'm stupid because my sentences are so simple and my method is so direct: they think these are defects. No. The point is to write as much as you know as quickly as possible.

The insane, on occasion, are not without their charms.

All right - I'll tell you what you did for me: you went for happy, silly, beautiful walks with me.

A story has to be a good date, because the reader can stop at any time. Remember, readers are selfish and have no compulsion to be decent about anything.

I never knew a writer's wife who wasn't beautiful.

He had the air of a spy in a melodrama, missing nothing, liking nothing, looking forward to the great day when everything would be turned upside down.

Rabo Karabekian: I'm in the middle of a sentence. Circe Berman: Who isn't?.

He did not think of himself as a writer for the simple reason that the world had never allowed him to think of himself in this way.

The economy is a thoughtless weather system.

A man without a home can't be lost.

Evolution is a mistake. Humans are a mistake. We've destroyed our planet.

Take care of the people, and God Almighty will take care of Himself.

Never index your own book.