Literary Birthday – 11 November – Kurt Vonnegut

Kurt Vonnegut was born 11 November 1922, and died 11 April 2007.

We found the quotes in an article on AVClub and wanted to share them with you. Please click on the article link to read it all.

12 Things Kurt Vonnegut Said In Books

1.   “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.’” A Man Without a Country
2.  “Peculiar travel suggestions are dancing lessons from God.” Cat’s Cradle
3.  “Tiger got to hunt, bird got to fly; Man got to sit and wonder, ‘Why, why, why?’ Tiger got to sleep, bird got to land; Man got to tell himself he understand.” Cat’s Cradle
4.  “There’s only one rule that I know of, babies—God damn it, you’ve got to be kind.” God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater
5.  “She was a fool, and so am I, and so is anyone who thinks he sees what God is doing.” Cat’s Cradle
6.  “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.’” Timequake
7.  “There are plenty of good reasons for fighting, but no good reason ever to hate without reservation, to imagine that God Almighty Himself hates with you, too.” Mother Night
8.  “Since Alice had never received any religious instruction, and since she had led a blameless life, she never thought of her awful luck as being anything but accidents in a very busy place. Good for her.” Slapstick or Lonesome No More!
9.  “That is my principal objection to life, I think: It’s too easy, when alive, to make perfectly horrible mistakes.” Deadeye Dick
10.  “All persons, living and dead, are purely coincidental.” Timequake
11.  “So it goes.” Slaughterhouse-Five
12.  “We must be careful about what we pretend to be.” Mother Night

By Scott Gordon, Josh Modell, Noel Murray, Tasha Robinson, Kyle Ryan

Kurt Vonnegut was an American novelist of speculative fiction, a satirist, and a graphic artist. He is best known for his books which blend satire, black comedy and science fiction. He used slipstream fiction techniques in his writing. These include the novels, Cat’s Cradle, Slaughterhouse-Five, and Breakfast of Champions. Vonnegut was a self-proclaimed humanist and socialist.

Suggested Reading:

1. Kurt Vonnegut’s 8 Writing Tips
2. All About Cinderella – Kurt Vonnegut Explains The Shapes Of Stories

Source for Image: WNET-TV/ PBS, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kurt_Vonnegut_1972.jpg

by Amanda Patterson

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