Kurt Vonnegut Quotes and Sayings - Page 1
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“Be soft. Do not let the world make you hard. Do not let pain make you hate. Do not let the bitterness steal your sweetness. Take pride that even though the rest of the world may disagree, you still believe it to be a beautiful place.”
-- Kurt Vonnegut -
“Start [writing] as close to the end as possible.”
-- Kurt Vonnegut -
“We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful what we pretend to be.”
-- Kurt VonnegutSource : Kurt Vonnegut (2009). “Mother Night: A Novel”, p.5, Dial Press
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“It distresses me deeply that ideas are not to be circulated freely in the USA if certain persons have their way. One of the things that was great about this country was that I could say anything and that everyone else could say anything and we would compare all possible ideas and arrive at opinions.”
-- Kurt Vonnegut -
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“Here is a lesson in creative writing. First rule: Do not use semicolons. They are transvestite hermaphrodites representing absolutely nothing. All they do is show you've been to college.”
-- Kurt Vonnegut -
“True terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high school class is running the country.”
-- Kurt VonnegutSource : Kurt Vonnegut (2013). “If This Isn't Nice, What Is?: Advice for the Young”, p.88, RosettaBooks
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“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.”
-- Kurt Vonnegut -
“I want to stand as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all the kinds of things you can't see from the center.”
-- Kurt VonnegutSource : FaceBook post by Kurt Vonnegut from Oct 01, 2012
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“And I urge you to please notice when you are happy, and exclaim or murmur or think at some point, 'If this isn't nice, I don't know what is.”
-- Kurt VonnegutSource : Kurt Vonnegut (2017). “A Man Without a Country”, p.132, Dial Press
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“The more pain I train myself to stand, the more I learn. You are afraid of pain now, Unk, but you won't learn anything if you don't invite the pain. And the more you learn, the gladder you will be to stand the pain.”
-- Kurt Vonnegut -
“When a man becomes a writer, I think he takes on a sacred obligation to produce beauty and enlighenment and comfort at top speed”
-- Kurt Vonnegut -
“I wish you'd help me look into a more interesting problem - namely, my sanity.”
-- Kurt Vonnegut -
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“Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.”
-- Kurt Vonnegut -
“Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion. I myself prefer to laugh, since there is less cleaning up to do afterward.”
-- Kurt Vonnegut -
“Dear future generations: Please accept our apologies. We were rolling drunk on petroleum.”
-- Kurt Vonnegut -
“If you want to break the rules of grammar, first learn the rules of grammar.”
-- Kurt Vonnegut -
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“Still and all, why bother? Here's my answer. Many people need desperately to receive this message: I feel and think much as you do, care about many of the things you care about, although most people do not care about them. You are not alone.”
-- Kurt Vonnegut -
“1492. As children we were taught to memorize this year with pride and joy as the year people began living full and imaginative lives on the continent of North America. Actually, people had been living full and imaginative lives on the continent of North America for hundreds of years before that. 1492 was simply the year sea pirates began to rob, cheat, and kill them.”
-- Kurt Vonnegut -
“Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.”
-- Kurt Vonnegut -
“A purpose of human life, no matter who is controlling it, is to love whoever is around to be loved.”
-- Kurt Vonnegut -
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“Hate, in the long run, is about as nourishing as cyanide.”
-- Kurt VonnegutSource : Kurt Vonnegut (2013). “If This Isn't Nice, What Is?: Advice for the Young”, p.23, RosettaBooks
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“The most damning revelation you can make about yourself is that you do not know what is interesting and what is not.”
-- Kurt Vonnegut -
“The waitress brought me another drink. She wanted to light my hurricane lamp again. I wouldn't let her. "Can you see anything in the dark, with your sunglasses on?" she asked me. "The big show is inside my head," I said.”
-- Kurt Vonnegut -
“Sometimes I wonder about the Creator of the Universe.”
-- Kurt Vonnegut -
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“To practice any art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow. So do it.”
-- Kurt Vonnegut -
“There is no reason why good cannot triumph as often as evil. The triumph of anything is a matter of organization. If there are such things as angels, I hope that they are organized along the lines of the Mafia.”
-- Kurt Vonnegut -
“The best jokes are dangerous, and dangerous because they are in some way truthful.”
-- Kurt Vonnegut -
“I really wonder what gives us the right to wreck this poor planet of ours.”
-- Kurt Vonnegut -
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“Every sentence must do one of two things-reveal character or advance the action.”
-- Kurt Vonnegut -
“In an unmoored life like mine, sleep and hunger and work arrange themselves to suit themselves, without consulting me.”
-- Kurt Vonnegut
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