Kurt Vonnegut

Think of what a paradise this world would be if men were kind and wise.

Enjoy your body, use it every way you can. Don’t be afraid of it, or what other people think of it, it’s the greatest instrument you’ll ever own.

I have this disease late at night sometimes, involving alcohol and the telephone. I get drunk, and I drive my wife away with a breath like mustard gas and roses. And then, speaking gravely and elegantly into the telephone, I ask the telephone operators to connect me with this friend or that one, from whom I have not heard in years.

The highest possible form of treason is to say that Americans aren’t loved wherever they go, whatever they do.

One of the main effects of war, after all, is that people are discouraged from being characters.

When I used to teach creative writing, I would tell the students to make their characters want something right away - even if it's only a glass of water. Characters paralyzed by the meaninglessness of modern life still have to drink water from time to time.

The crowd, having been promised nothing, felt cheated, having received nothing.

Why throw money at problems? That is what money is for. Should the nation's wealth be redistributed? It has been and continues to be redistributed to a few people in a manner strikingly unhelpful.

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

Cigarettes are a classy way to commit suiside.

That's the secret of how to enjoy writing and how to make yourself meet high standards," said Mrs. Berman. "You don't write for the whole world, and you don't write for ten people, or two. You write for just one person.

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

There is no order in the world around us, we must adapt ourselves to the requirements of chaos instead.

All these years, I've been opening the window and making love to the world.

All was forgiven. All living things were brothers, and all dead things were even more so.

Evolution is so creative. That's how we got giraffes.

And what do the birds say? All there is to say about a massacre, things like "Poo-tee-weet?

There is nothing left of him but curiosity and a pair of eyes.

Music is, to me, proof of the existence of God. It is so extraordinarily full of magic, and in tough times of my life I can listen to music and it makes such a difference.

When a man becomes a writer, I think he takes on a sacred obligation to produce beauty and enlighenment and comfort at top speed

Some persons seem to like you, and others seem to hate you, and you must wonder why. They are simply liking machines and hating machines.