Quote collection

Thinking Quotes — page 1044 of 4756

Kurt Vonnegut Novelist, Satirist
Hopeful

“After that demonstration everybody was thinking, what's going to happen to these wonderful men who have been so useful to us? We have to give people something to do with life.”

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Kurt Vonnegut Novelist, Satirist
Creative

“So many people think that practicing an art is a good way to make a living. Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven's sake. I'm talking about singing in the shower, I'm talking about dancing to the radio, I'm talking about writing a poem to a friend.”

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Kurt Vonnegut Novelist, Satirist
Philosophical

“Also, I think that, you know, it's tribal behavior. I don't think that Pat Robertson, for instance, doubts that we evolved. He is simply representing a tribe.”

Kurt Vonnegut Novelist, Satirist
Funny

“I think jokes are a perfectly viable form of literature. Some critics take issue with me because I make my points and discuss my ideas with jokes, rather than with oceanic tragedy.”

Kurt Vonnegut Novelist, Satirist
Angry

“When we passed a Catholic church, I recalled, he said, "You think your dad's a good chemist? They're turning soda crackers into meat in there. Can your dad do that?”

Kurt Vonnegut Novelist, Satirist
Inspired

“A lot of people were opposed to it. A lot of people were for it. I myself think about it as little as possible.”

Kurt Vonnegut Novelist, Satirist
Thoughtful

“Her face ... was a one-of-a-kind, a surprising variation on a familiar theme - a variation that made observers think, Yes - that would be another very nice way for people to look. What Beatrice had done with her face, actually, was what any plain girl could do. She overlaid it with dignity, suffering, intelligence, and a piquant dash of bitchiness.”

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Kurt Vonnegut Novelist, Satirist
Love

“I saw a huge steam roller, It blotted out the sun. The people all lay down, lay down; They did not try to run. My love and I, we looked amazed Upon the gory mystery. "Lie down, lie down!" the people cried. "The great machine is history!" My love and I, we ran away, The engine did not find us. We ran up to a mountain top, Left history far behind us. Perhaps we should have stayed and died, But somehow we don't think so. We went to see where history'd been, And my, the dead did stink so.”

Kurt Vonnegut Novelist, Satirist
Angry

“The polls demonstrate that 50 percent of Americans who get their news from TV think Saddam Hussein was behind the Twin Towers attack. Man, have they got ways for getting half-truths out right away now, thanks to TV! I think TV is a calamity in a democracy.”

Kurt Vonnegut Novelist, Satirist
Melancholic

“Well, it's practically over, thank God - I'm 83, there won't be that much more of it to put up with I don't think!”

Kurt Vonnegut Novelist, Satirist
Courageous

“You know, I think the main purpose of the Army, Navy, and Marine Corps is to get poor Americans into clean, pressed, unpatched clothes, so rich Americans can stand to look at them.”

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Kurt Vonnegut Novelist, Satirist
Angry

“If you actually are an educated, thinking person, you will not be welcome in Washington, D.C. I know a couple of bright seventh graders who would not be welcome in Washington D.C.”

Kurt Vonnegut Novelist, Satirist
Sad

“I wasn't aware of Ku Klux Klan as I was aware of the widespread assumption that African-Americans were dumber than white people. I think my father believed that. I think everybody white did.”

Kurt Vonnegut Novelist, Satirist
Creative

“I think I succeeded as a writer because I did not come out of an English department. I used to write in the chemistry department. And I wrote some good stuff. If I had been in the English department, the prof would have looked at my short stories, congratulated me on my talent, and then showed me how Joyce or Hemingway handled the same elements of the short story. The prof would have placed me in competition with the greatest writers of all time, and that would have ended my writing career.”

Kurt Vonnegut Novelist, Satirist
Courageous

“Here's what I think the truth is: We are all addicts of fossil fuels in a state of denial, about to face cold turkey. And like so many addicts about to face cold turkey, our leaders are now committing violent crimes to get what little is left of what we're hooked on.”

Kurt Russell Actor
Confident

“If they're willing to pay you what you think you're worth for it, that's why an actor goes to work. A lot of times they want to pay you a lot for a picture you don't want to do.”

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Kurt Russell Actor
Creative

“I've never looked at my career in terms of, What haven't I done that I want to do? I just generally find a story that I think is a good one and go to work”