Kurt Vonnegut

Kurt Vonnegut

Novelist, Satirist

Kurt Vonnegut was an American author known for his satirical novels, particularly 'Slaughterhouse-Five', which critiques war and explores human existence.

People Thinking Writing War Men Slaughterhouse Five
Born
November 11, 1927
Died
April 11, 2007
Quotes
978
Rank
#85

Quote collection

Kurt Vonnegut quotes (page 30 of 49)

978 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.

Kurt Vonnegut Novelist, Satirist
Popular

"The women all had big minds because they were big animals, but they didn't use them for this reason: unusual ideas could make enemies and the women, if they were going to achieve any sort of comfort and safety, needed all the friends they could get. So, in the interest of survival they trained themselves to be agreeing machines. All their minds had to do was to discover what other people were thinking and then they thought it too."

Animal Thinking Ideas
Read quote 3 likes
Kurt Vonnegut Novelist, Satirist
Popular

"Dwayne's bad chemicals made him take a loaded thirty-eight caliber revolver from under his pillow and stick it in his mouth. This was a tool whose only purpose was to make holes in human beings."

Eight Tools Purpose
Read quote 3 likes
Kurt Vonnegut Novelist, Satirist
Popular

"Ink and paper are as cheap as sand or water, almost. No board of directors has to convene in order to decide whether we can afford to write down this or that. I myself once staged the end of the world on two pieces of paper- at a cost of ...less than a penny, including wear and tear on my typewriter ribbon and the seat of my pants. 'Think of that."

Writing Thinking Typewriters
Read quote 3 likes
Kurt Vonnegut Novelist, Satirist
Popular

"... uncritical love is the only real treasure."

Love Real Love Is
Read quote 3 likes
Kurt Vonnegut Novelist, Satirist
Popular

"Here was what Kilgore Trout cried out to me in my father's voice: "Make me young, make me young, make me young!"

Father Voice Trout
Read quote 3 likes
Kurt Vonnegut Novelist, Satirist
Popular

"Humor is a way of holding off how awful life can be, to protect yourself."

Awful Way Protect
Read quote 3 likes
Kurt Vonnegut Novelist, Satirist
Popular

"I'm eighty-three and homeless. It was the same when World War II ended. The Army kept me on because I could type, so I was typing other people's discharges and stuff. And my feeling was "Please, I've done everything I was supposed to do. Can I go home now?" That what I feel right now. I've written books. Lots of them. Please, I've done everything I'm supposed to do. Can I go home now? I've wondered where home is. It's when I was in Indianapolis when I was nine years old. Had a dog, a cat, a brother, a sister."

Dog Brother War
Read quote 3 likes
Kurt Vonnegut Novelist, Satirist
Popular

"It goes against the American storytelling grain to have someone in a situation he can't get out of, but I think this is very usual in life."

Thinking Usual Storytelling
Read quote 3 likes
Kurt Vonnegut Novelist, Satirist
Popular

"It's only recently that I've come to understand that writers are not marginal to our society, that they, in fact, do all our thinking for us, that we are writing myths and our myths are believed, and that old myths are believed until someone writes a new one."

Writing Thinking Our Society
Read quote 3 likes
Kurt Vonnegut Novelist, Satirist
Popular

"That's what is was to be young - to be enthusiastic rather than envious about the good work other people could do."

People Envious Good Work
Read quote 3 likes
Kurt Vonnegut Novelist, Satirist
Popular

"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."

Luxury Doubt Tribes
Read quote 3 likes
Kurt Vonnegut Novelist, Satirist
Popular

"We are about to be attacked by Al Qaeda. Wave flags if you have them. That always seems to scare them away. I'm kidding."

Scare Flags Als
Read quote 3 likes
Kurt Vonnegut Novelist, Satirist
Popular

"That's the point. Every kind of animal thinks its own kind of animal is wonderful. So people getting married think they're wonderful, and that they're going to have a baby-- that's wonderful, when actually they're as ugly as rhinoceroses. 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."

Baby Hurt Mean
Read quote 3 likes
Kurt Vonnegut Novelist, Satirist
Popular

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

Years Making Love World
Read quote 3 likes
Kurt Vonnegut Novelist, Satirist
Popular

"Trust a crowd to look at the wrong end of a miracle every time."

Miracle Looks Crowds
Read quote 3 likes
Kurt Vonnegut Novelist, Satirist
Popular

"Vietnam was a country where America was trying to make people stop being communists by dropping things on them from airplanes."

Country Airplane America
Read quote 3 likes
Kurt Vonnegut Novelist, Satirist
Popular

"The death of a library, any library, suggests that the community has lost its soul."

Community Soul Library
Read quote 3 likes
Kurt Vonnegut Novelist, Satirist
Popular

"There was no immunity to cuckoo ideas on Earth."

Ideas Cuckoos Earth
Read quote 3 likes
Kurt Vonnegut Novelist, Satirist
Popular

"I had taught myself that a human being might as well look for diamond tiaras in the gutter as for rewards and punishments that were fair."

Punishment Gutters Looks
Read quote 3 likes
Kurt Vonnegut Novelist, Satirist
Popular

"I can see where influential people would like Maharishi better than Jesus. My God, if the Beatles and Mia Farrow went to Jesus, He'd tell them to give all their money away."

Jesus Giving People
Read quote 3 likes