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Quotations from
sci-fi author Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. [1922-2007]
| American author Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. is a genre all to himself. His wild fiction and non-fiction works are often science-fiction, but largely also satirical, if not pessimistic. He published 14 novels, three short story collections, five plays, and five works of non-fiction, and is most famous for his darkly satirical, best-selling novel "Slaughterhouse-Five" [1969], partly based on his experiences as a P.O.W. during the Allies bombing of Dresden, Germany. |  |
Links are provided below for further investigation.
The references to WMail issues indicate quotes that appeared in the free monthly 'WMail' ezine
connected with the revolutionary "Working Minds Philosophy of Empowerment" created by G.E. Nordell.
After WMail Issue #72 in October 2007, essays & quotations & news are being posted to the Dateline Chamesa blog
Kurt Vonnegut entry at Wikipedia
The Kurt Vonnegut Society blog [est. 2008] based at College of Charleston in South Carolina
Kurt Vonnegut Museum & Library [est. 2010] in Indianapolis
Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. Page at Spirit of America Bookstore
 | "Kurt Vonnegut: The Complete Novels" [2016] Edited by Sidney Offit Library of America 8¼x5½ hardcover [10/2016] 4 books for $126.04 Library of America slipcover four volume box set includes nine short stories and 14 novels: "Player Piano" [1952], "The Sirens of Titan" [1959], "Mother Night" [1962], "Cat’s Cradle" [1963], "God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater" [1965], "Slaughterhouse-Five" [1966], "Breakfast of Champions" [1973], "Slapstick" [1976], "Jailbird" [1979], "Deadeye Dick" [1982], "Galápagos" [1985], "Bluebeard" [1987], "Hocus Pocus" [1990], and "Timequake" [1997] |
“The primary benefit of practicing any art, whether well or badly, is that
it enables one's soul to grow.” (Writers' Digest Sept 2001) {Issue #16}
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“Judgment Day . . . could easily be next Wednesday.” {Issue #33}
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“You want to know something? We are still in the Dark Ages.
The Dark Ages – they haven't ended yet.” {Issue #34}
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“There is no reason [that] good can't triumph over evil, if only angels will
get organized along the lines of the Mafia.” {Issue #56}
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“We are here on earth to f*rt around. Don’t let anybody tell you any different.” {Issue #62}
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“The life that awaits after death is infinitely more tiresome than this one.” {blog 10/2007}
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“Fascists are inferior people who believe it when somebody tells them [that] they are superior.” {blog 10/2007}
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“Another flaw in the human character is that everybody wants to build and nobody wants
to do maintenance.”, in "Hocus Pocus", 1990 {blog 7/2011}
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“One of the good things about modern times: If you die horribly on television, you will not have
died in vain. You will have entertained us.” {blog 12/2011}
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“The only difference between Hitler and Bush is that Hitler was elected.” (in 2004) {blog 1/2012}
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“We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.” {blog 3/2013}
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“Any reviewer who expresses rage and loathing for a novel is preposterous. He or she is like a person
who has put on full armor and attacked a hot fudge sundae.” {blog 4/2013}
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“True terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high school class is running the country.” {blog 4/2014}
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“The Cornell Sun, thank goodness, showed me what to do with my life, and I did it.” {blog 9/2014}
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“We have to continually be jumping off cliffs and developing our wings on the way down.” {blog 11/2014}
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“The main business of humanity is to do a good job of being human beings, not to serve as appendages
to machines, institutions, and systems.” {blog 5/2015}
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“Practice any art, no matter how well or badly, not to get money and fame but to experience becoming, to find out
what's inside you, to make your soul grow.” {blog 12/2015}
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“I hate it that Americans are taught to fear some books and some ideas as though they were diseases.” {blog 6/2017}
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“If people think [that] nature is their friend, then they sure don't need an enemy.” {blog 2/2019}
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“A purpose of human life, no matter who is controlling it, is to love whoever is around to be loved.”
- in "The Sirens of Titan" [1959] {blog 5/2020 & 7/2022}
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“I don’t know about you, but I practice a disorganized religion. I belong to an unholy disorder.
We call ourselves ‘Our Lady of Perpetual Astonishment’.” {blog 3/2023}
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“You meet saints everywhere. They can be anywhere. They are people behaving decently in an indecent society.” {blog 12/2023}
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