“Time is liquid. One moment is no more important than any other and all moments quickly run away.”
Kurt Vonnegut book Bluebeard
Source: Bluebeard (1987), p. 82
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@xy, member from Sept. 25, 2023Kurt Vonnegut (1922–2007) American writer
Playboy interview (1973)
Context: I couldn't survive my own pessimism if I didn't have some kind of sunny little dream. … Human beings will be happier — not when they cure cancer or get to Mars or eliminate racial prejudice or flush Lake Erie — but when they find ways to inhabit primitive communities again. That’s my utopia. That's what I want for me.
Kurt Vonnegut Happy Birthday, Wanda June
"Wanda June"
Happy Birthday, Wanda June (1970)
Context: Hello, I am Wanda June. Today was going to be my birthday, but I was hit by an ice-cream truck before I could have my party. I am dead now. I am in Heaven. That is why my parents did not pick up my cake at the bakery. I am not mad at the ice-cream truck driver, even though he was drunk when he hit me. It didn't hurt much. It wasn't even as bad as the sting of a bumblebee. I am really happy here! It's so much fun. I'm glad the driver was drunk. If he hadn't been, I might not have gone to Heaven for years and years and years. I would have had to go to high school first, and then beauty college. I would have had to get married and have babies and everything. Now I can just play and play and play. Any time I want any pink cotton candy I can have some. Everybody up here is happy — the animals and the dead soldiers and people who went to the electric chair and everything. They're all glad for whatever sent them here. Nobody is mad. We're all too busy playing shuffleboard. So if you think of killing somebody, don't worry about it. Just go ahead and do it. Whoever you do it to should kiss you for doing it. The soldiers up here just love the shrapnel and the tanks and the bayonets and the dum dums that let them play shuffleboard all the time — and drink beer.
„Nehéz a káoszhoz alkalmazkodni, de nem megoldhatatlan. Magam vagyok rá az élő példa.”
Kurt Vonnegut book Breakfast of Champions
Bajnokok reggelije
„Szerintem az érettség az, ha az ember ismeri önnön korlátait.”
Kurt Vonnegut book Cat's Cradle
Macskabölcső
„Az emberi lét célja, függetlenül attól, ki befolyásolja: szeretni, akiket szeretnünk kell.”
Kurt Vonnegut book The Sirens of Titan
A Titán szirénjei