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Poverty is a relatively mild disease for even a very flimsy American soul, but uselessness will kill strong and weak souls alike, and kill every time.

Kurt Vonnegut

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Kurt Vonnegut
Age: 84 †
Born: 1922
Born: November 11
Died: 2007
Died: April 14
Author
Essayist
Journalist
Novelist
Peace Activist
Philosopher
Playwright
Science Fiction Writer
Screenwriter
Writer
Indianapolis
Indiana
Kurt Vonnegut
Jr.
Disease
Flimsy
Poverty
Uselessness
American
Mild
Strong
Relatively
Soul
Alike
Even
Souls
Every
Kill
Time
Weak

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I taught writing for a while and whenever somebody would tell me they were going to write about their dad, I would tell them they might as well go write about killing puppies because neither story was going to work. It just doesn't work.
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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.
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I think William Shakespeare was the wisest human being I ever heard of. To be perfectly frank, though, that's not saying much.
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The library is full of stories of supposed triumphs which makes me very suspicious of it. It's misleading for people to read about great successes, since even for middle-class and upper-class white people, in my experience, failure is the norm.
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There is love enough in this world for everybody, if people will just look.
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I have been a writer since 1949. I am self-taught. I have no theories about writing that might help others. When I write, I simply become what I seemingly must become. I am six feet two and weigh nearly two hundred pounds and am badly coordinated, except when I swim. All that borrowed meat does the writing. In the water I am beautiful.
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You've got to be a good date for the reader.
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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.
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He didn't look like a soldier at all. He looked like a filthy flamingo.
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I think you guys are going to have to come up with a lot of wonderful new lies, or people just aren't going to want to go on living.
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Life is no way to treat an animal.
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I chose cultural anthropology, since it offered the greatest opportunity to write high-minded balderdash.
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Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.
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Evolution is a mistake. Humans are a mistake. We've destroyed our planet.
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What is my definition of jazz? Safe sex of the highest order.
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Never trust a survivor until you know how they survived.
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The Population Reference Bureau predicts that the world's total population will double to 7,000,000,000 before the year 2000. I suppose they will all want dignity, I said.
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I still believe that peace and plenty and happiness can be worked out some way. I am a fool.
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Smoking is the only honorable form of suicide.
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You realize, of course, that everything I say is horseshit.
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