Sometimes I think it is a great mistake to have matter that can think and feel. It complains so. Kurt Vonnegut More Quotes by Kurt Vonnegut More Quotes From Kurt Vonnegut That’s the secret of artistic unity. Anybody can achieve it, if he or she will make something with only one person in mind. Kurt Vonnegut unity secret mind Do you realize that all great literature is all about what a bummer it is to be a human being? Isn't it such a relief to have somebody say that? Kurt Vonnegut relief realizing literature Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To heck with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages. Kurt Vonnegut should-have writing giving Einstein's E=mc2 is an extraordinary concept. So radical: matter and energy are two phases of the same sort of general stuff. There's only one other idea that radical: Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Kurt Vonnegut forgiveness two ideas So, in the interests of survival, they trained themselves to be agreeing machines instead of thinking machines. All their minds had to do was to discover what other people were thinking, and then they thought that, too. Kurt Vonnegut survival people thinking I say in speeches that a plausible mission of artists is to make people appreciate being alive at least a little bit. I am then asked if I know of any artists who pulled that off. I reply, 'The Beatles did. Kurt Vonnegut appreciate artist people There isn’t any particular relationship between the messages, except that the author has chosen them carefully, so that, when seen all at once, they produce an image of life that is beautiful and surprising and deep. There is no beginning, no middle, no end, no suspense, no moral, no causes, no effects. What we love in our books are the depths of many marvelous moments seen all at one time. Kurt Vonnegut beautiful love book I never asked to be born in the first place. Kurt Vonnegut born firsts I still believe that peace and plenty and happiness can be worked out some way. I am a fool. Kurt Vonnegut healing believe way Like so many Americans, she was trying to construct a life that made sense from things she found in gift shops. Kurt Vonnegut slaughterhouse-five life-changing trying I'm simply interested in what is going to happen next. I don't think I can control my life or my writing. Every other writer I know feels he is steering himself, and I don't have that feeling. I don't have that sort of control. I'm simply becoming. I'm startled that I became a writer. Kurt Vonnegut feelings writing thinking Tis better to have love and lust Than to let our apparatus rust. Kurt Vonnegut love-and-lust rust lust My soul knows my meat is doing bad things, and is embarrassed. But my meat just keeps right on doing bad, dumb things. Kurt Vonnegut meat dumb soul People are only animals, but special animals. Every animal has fought and killed to survive, even before the dinosaurs. We're the only ones that do it for fun. That's why I don't know about Darwinism. Supposedly evolution and natural selection are all about survival, but we haven't gotten smarter over the years, only more dangerous. Kurt Vonnegut animal fun years You are better than you think. Kurt Vonnegut three two thinking You can't just eat good food. You've got to talk about it too. Kurt Vonnegut good-food They say, you know, about evolution, it surely happened because their fossil record shows that. Look, my body and your body are miracles of design. Scientists are pretending they have the answer as how we got this way when natural selection couldn't possibly have produced such machines. Kurt Vonnegut design miracle looks The trouble with being a secular humanist is that we don't have a congregation. We don't meet so it's a very flimsy tribe, but there's a wonderful quotation from Nietzsche. Nietzsche said, Only a person of deep faith can afford the luxury of skepticism. Something perfectly is going on. I do not doubt it, but the explanations I hear do not satisfy me. Kurt Vonnegut tribes luxury doubt If you can't write clearly, you probably don't think nearly as well as you think you do. Kurt Vonnegut wells writing thinking Moderate giftedness has been made worthless by the printing press and radio and television and satellites and all that. A moderately gifted person who would have been a community treasure a thousand years ago has to give up, has to go into some other line of work, since modern communications put him or her into daily competition with nothing but world's champions. Kurt Vonnegut giving-up communication encouragement
