There is never a shortage anywhere of lawyers eager to attack the First Amendment, as though it were nothing more than a clause in a lease from a crooked slumlord. Kurt Vonnegut More Quotes by Kurt Vonnegut More Quotes From Kurt Vonnegut The paintings by dead men who were poor most of their lives are the most valuable pieces in my collection. And if an artist wants to really jack up the prices of his creations, may I suggest this: suicide. Kurt Vonnegut artist suicide men What memories for mud to have. Kurt Vonnegut mud memories Much of the blame is the malarkey that artists have created to glorify war, which as we all know, is nonsense, and a good deal worse than that — romantic pictures of battle, and of the dead and men in uniform and all that. And I did not want to have that story told again. Kurt Vonnegut artist men war For a Russian to be chivalrous with an American is a spiritual impossibility, a conradiction in terms. Kurt Vonnegut inconsistency term spiritual I think about my education sometimes. I went to the University of Chicago for awhile after the Second World War. I was a student in the Department of Anthropology. At that time they were teaching that there was absolutely no difference between anybody. They may be teaching that still. Another thing they taught was that no one was ridiculous or bad or disgusting. Shortly before my father died, he said to me, ‘You know – you never wrote a story with a villain in it.’ I told him that was one of the things I learned in college after the war. Kurt Vonnegut teaching war father ... humanity deserved to die horribly, since it had behaved so cruelly and wastefully on a planet so sweet. Kurt Vonnegut planets humanity sweet We're doomed to repeat the past no matter what. That's what it is to be alive. It's pretty dense kids who haven't figured that out by the time they're ten.... Most kids can't afford to go to Harvard and be misinformed. Kurt Vonnegut alive kids past I realize that some of you may have come in hopes of hearing tips on how to become a professional writer. I say to you, "If you really want to hurt your parents, and you don't have the nerve to be a homosexual, the least you can do is go into the arts. But do not use semicolons. They are transvestite hermaphrodites, standing for absolutely nothing. All they do is show you've been to college. Kurt Vonnegut college hurt art Just because we think we're so wonderful doesn't mean we really are. We could be really terrible animals and just never admit it because it would hurt so much. Kurt Vonnegut hurt animal mean It was a thunderingly beautiful experience-voluptuous, sexual, dangerous, and expensive as hell. Kurt Vonnegut hell dangerous beautiful ... uncritical love is the only real treasure. Kurt Vonnegut real love-is love It appeared to the Elders that the people here would believe anything about themselves, no matter how preposterous, as long as it was flattering. To make sure of this, they performed an experiment. They put the idea into Earthlings' heads that the whole Universe had been created by one big animal who looked just like them. He sat on a throne with a lot of less fancy thrones all around him. When people died they got to sit on those other thrones forever because they were such close relatives of the Creator. The people down here just ate that up! Kurt Vonnegut animal believe ideas History! Read it and weep! Kurt Vonnegut history It is harder to be unhappy when you are eating. Kurt Vonnegut unhappy eating food I will say, too, that lovemaking, if sincere, is one of the best ideas Satan put in the apple she gave to the serpent to give to Eve. The best idea in that apple, though, is making jazz. Kurt Vonnegut apples giving ideas The economy is a thoughtless weather system. Kurt Vonnegut economy weather I now believe that the only way in which Americans can rise above their ordinariness, can mature sufficiently to rescue themselves and to help rescue their planet, is through enthusiastic intimacy with works of their own imagination. Kurt Vonnegut imagination believe way Until you die .. it's all life. Kurt Vonnegut dies I want a military funeral when I diethe bugler, the flag on the casket, the ceremonial firing squad, the hallowed ground.... It will be a way of achieving what I've always wanted more than anythingsomething I could have had, if only I'd managed to get myself killed in the war.... The unqualified approval of my community. Kurt Vonnegut squad military war You were sick, but now you're well again, and there's work to do. Kurt Vonnegut recovery get-well sick
