8a6272f
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We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.
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choice
inspiration
imagination
life
attitude
pretend
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Kurt Vonnegut |
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I want to stand as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can't see from the center.
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Kurt Vonnegut |
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Everything was beautiful and nothing hurt.
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Kurt Vonnegut |
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And on the subject of burning books: I want to congratulate librarians, not famous for their physical strength or their powerful political connections or their great wealth, who, all over this country, have staunchly resisted anti-democratic bullies who have tried to remove certain books from their shelves, and have refused to reveal to thought police the names of persons who have checked out those titles. So the America I loved still exist..
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politics
books
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Kurt Vonnegut |
486c7b8
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If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph: THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
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music
god
life
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kurt vonnegut |
58445c9
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And so it goes...
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Kurt Vonnegut |
81793cf
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We have to continually be jumping off cliffs and developing our wings on the way down.
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writing
quip
invention
wings
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Kurt Vonnegut |
837bfec
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If you want to really hurt you parents, and you don't have the nerve to be gay, the least you can do is go into the arts. I'm not kidding. The arts are not a way to make a living. They are a very human way of making life more bearable. Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven's sake. Sing in the shower. Dance to the radio. Tell stories. Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem. Do it as ..
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writing
arts-and-humanities
creative-process
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Kurt Vonnegut |
e24cc84
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Here is a lesson in creative writing. First rule: Do not use semicolons. They are transvestite hermaphrodites representing absolutely nothing. All they do is show you've been to college.
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semicolons
writing
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Kurt Vonnegut |
a8a714a
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A purpose of human life, no matter who is controlling it, is to love whoever is around to be loved.
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love
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Kurt Vonnegut |
aba465b
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And I asked myself about the present: how wide it was, how deep it was, how much was mine to keep.
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Kurt Vonnegut |
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How nice -- to feel nothing, and still get full credit for being alive.
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life
coma
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Kurt Vonnegut |
af7d326
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And 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.
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Kurt Vonnegut Jr. |
a9a9e37
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And Lot's wife, of course, was told not to look back where all those people and their homes had been. But she did look back, and I love her for that, because it was so human. So she was turned into a pillar of salt. So it goes.
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humanity
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Kurt Vonnegut |
f768c9d
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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.
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nature
philosophy
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Kurt Vonnegut |
68b1434
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I tell you, we are here on Earth to fart around, and don't let anybody tell you different.
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Kurt Vonnegut |
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To be is to do - Socrates
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Kurt Vonnegut |
8cbda4a
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In the beginning, God created the earth, and he looked upon it in His cosmic loneliness. And God said, "Let Us make living creatures out of mud, so the mud can see what We have done." And God created every living creature that now moveth, and one was man. Mud as man alone could speak. God leaned close to mud as man sat up, looked around, and spoke. Man blinked. "What is the purpose of all this?" he asked politely. "Everything must have a pu..
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meaning-of-life
purpose
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Kurt Vonnegut |
413e021
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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.
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Kurt Vonnegut |
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I have this disease late at night sometimes, involving alcohol and the telephone.
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Kurt Vonnegut Jr. |
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Like so many Americans, she was trying to construct a life that made sense from things she found in gift shops.
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Kurt Vonnegut |
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I was a victim of a series of accidents, as are we all.
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Kurt Vonnegut |
b20c37d
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America is the wealthiest nation on Earth, but its people are mainly poor, and poor Americans are urged to hate themselves. To quote the American humorist Kin Hubbard, 'It ain't no disgrace to be poor, but it might as well be.' It is in fact a crime for an American to be poor, even though America is a nation of poor. Every other nation has folk traditions of men who were poor but extremely wise and virtuous, and therefore more estimable tha..
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love
disgrace
poor
inequality
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Kurt Vonnegut |
5a50ef4
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The only difference between
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politics
humor
electoral-politics
george-w-bush
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Kurt Vonnegut |
ded40bc
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Why me? - That is a very Earthling question to ask, Mr. Pilgrim. Why you? Why us for that matter? Why anything? Because this moment simply is. Have you ever seen bugs trapped in amber? - Yes. - Well, here we are, Mr. Pilgrim, trapped in the amber of this moment. There is no why.
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Kurt Vonnegut Jr. |
9254e64
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Science is magic that works.
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Kurt Vonnegut |
893d987
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All this happened, more or less.
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Kurt Vonnegut |
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A sane person to an insane society must appear insane.
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Kurt Vonnegut |
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What should young people do with their lives today? Many things, obviously. But the most daring thing is to create stable communities in which the terrible disease of loneliness can be cured.
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loneliness
daring
youth
community
purpose
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Kurt Vonnegut |
e1a06b6
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Beware of the man who works hard to learn something, learns it, and finds himself no wiser than before.
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Kurt Vonnegut |
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All moments, past, present and future, always have existed, always will exist.
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Kurt Vonnegut |
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There is no beginning, no middle, no end, no suspense, no moral, no causes, no effects. What we love in our books are the depths of many marvelous moments seen all at one time.
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Kurt Vonnegut |
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If you can do no good, at least do no harm.
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Kurt Vonnegut |
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Say what you will about the sweet miracle of unquestioning faith, I consider a capacity for it terrifying and absolutely vile.
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terrifying
vile
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Kurt Vonnegut |
c7de7d4
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Do you realize that all great literature is all about what a bummer it is to be a human being? Isn't it such a relief to have somebody say that?
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Kurt Vonnegut Jr. |
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Love is where you find it. I think it is foolish to go around looking for it, and I think it can be poisonous. I wish that people who are conventionally supposed to love each other would say to each other, when they fight, 'Please -- a little less love, and a little more common decency'.
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humor
love
respect
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Kurt Vonnegut |
f5d20a1
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Live by the harmless untruths that make you brave and kind and healthy and happy.
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Kurt Vonnegut Jr. |
8a81245
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If somebody says 'I love you' to me, I feel as though I had a pistol pointed at my head. What can anybody reply under such conditions but that which the pistol holder requires? 'I love you, too'.
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violence
love
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Kurt Vonnegut |
0975369
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And yet another moral occurs to me now: Make love when you can. It's good for you.
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sex
morality
love
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Kurt Vonnegut |
d9c05f2
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Here is a lesson in creative writing. First rule: Do not use semicolons. They are transvestite hermaphrodites representing absolutely nothing. All they do is show you've been to college. And I realize some of you may be having trouble deciding whether I am kidding or not. So from now on I will tell you when I'm kidding. For instance, join the National Guard or the Marines and teach democracy. I'm kidding. We are about to be attacked by Al Q..
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writing
humor
creative-process
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Kurt Vonnegut |
a0f44fc
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I wanted all things To seem to make some sense, So we could all be happy, yes, Instead of tense. And I made up lies So that they all fit nice, And I made this sad world A par-a-dise.
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poetry
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Kurt Vonnegut |
8217e8a
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The nicest veterans...the kindest and funniest ones, the ones who hated war the most, were the ones who'd really fought.
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Kurt Vonnegut |
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Anyway--because we are readers, we don't have to wait for some communications executive to decide what we should think about next--and how we should think about it. We can fill our heads with anything from aardvarks to zucchinis--at any time of night or day.
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reading
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Kurt Vonnegut |
878ecad
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As for literary criticism in general: I have long felt that any reviewer who expresses rage and loathing for a novel or a play or a poem is preposterous. He or she is like a person who has put on full armor and attacked a hot fudge sundae or a banana split.
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writing
reviewers
critics
literary-criticism
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kurt Vonnegut |