“Who is more to be pitied, a writer bound and gagged by policemen or one living in perfect freedom who has nothing more to say?”

—  Kurt Vonnegut, book Bluebeard

Source: Bluebeard (1987), p. 168

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Sept. 27, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Who is more to be pitied, a writer bound and gagged by policemen or one living in perfect freedom who has nothing more …" by Kurt Vonnegut?
Kurt Vonnegut photo
Kurt Vonnegut318
American writer 1922–2007

Related quotes

Katherine Paterson photo

“Nothing means more to a writer than to get a letter from a reader who has deeply connected to one of your books.”

Katherine Paterson (1932) American children's writer born and mainly raised in China

Jean Baudrillard photo

“The need to speak, even if one has nothing to say, becomes more pressing when one has nothing to say, just as the will to live becomes more urgent when life has lost its meaning.”

Jean Baudrillard (1929–2007) French sociologist and philosopher

Source: 1980s, The Ecstasy of Communication (1987), p. 30

Fernando Pessoa photo

“Pity him who lives at home
Happy with his life,
Without a dream, a flexing of wings,
To make him relinquish
Even the warmest ember of his hearth!

Pity him who is happy!
He lives because life lasts.
Nothing within him whispers
More than the primeval law:
That life leads to the grave.”

Fernando Pessoa book Mensagem

&lt;p&gt;Original: Triste de quem vive em casa,<br>Contente com o seu lar,<br>Sem que um sonho, no erguer de asa,<br>Faça até mais rubra a brasa<br>Da lareira a abandonar!&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Triste de quem é feliz!<br>Vive porque a vida dura.<br>Nada na alma lhe diz<br>Mais que a lição da raiz-<br>Ter por vida a sepultura.&lt;/p&gt; <br class="br">Poem &quot;O Quinto Império&quot; http://www.inverso.pt/Mensagem/Encoberto/QuintoImperio.htm, lines 1–10 <br class="br">Message

“Writers who have nothing to say always strain for metaphors to say it in.”

Florence King (1936–2016) American writer

The Florence King Reader (1995)

Katori Hall photo

“I always say that I’m a writer who writes more from place than race.”

Katori Hall (1981) American playwright

On the theme that she most explores in “Art Talk with Playwright Katori Hall” https://www.arts.gov/art-works/2015/art-talk-playwright-katori-hall (National Endowment of the Arts; 2015 May 28)

George Salmon photo

“In early times of Christianity, even those who used animal food themselves came to think of the vegetarian as one who lived a higher life, and approached more nearly to Christian perfection.”

George Salmon (1819–1904) mathematician and Anglican theologian

A Historical Introduction to the Study of the Books of the New Testament (London: John Murray, 1885; 4th ed. 1889), p. 203 http://archive.org/stream/historicalintrod00salmuoft#page/203/mode/2up.

E. B. White photo

“An editor is a person who knows more about writing than writers do but who has escaped the terrible desire to write.”

E. B. White (1899–1985) American writer

Letter to Shirley Wiley (30 March 1954), in The Letters of E. B. White (1989), p. 391

Oscar Wilde photo

“For he who lives more lives than one
More deaths than one must die.”

Oscar Wilde book The Ballad of Reading Gaol

Pt. III, st. 22
The Ballad of Reading Gaol (1898)
Source: The Ballad of Reading Gaol and Other Poems

“There are also blind spots in both cultures... there is no perfect culture. As we say, no one has the complete picture. We need each other to see more facets of who God really is and his call to us.”

Murray Chatlain (1963) Roman Catholic archbishop

Source: Cultural diversity: a richness for the Church http://www.archivioradiovaticana.va/storico/2013/12/21/cultural_diversity_a_richness_for_the_church_/en1-757749 (21 December 2013)

Related topics