Contents
E-mail Me
(I am not Kurt Vonnegut,
nor am I in any way
related or connected to
him)
Vonnegut-isms: Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.'s Opinions on a Variety of Topics
KV on the Army:
"The feeling about a soldier is, when all is said and done, he wasn't really going to do very much with his life anyway. The example usually is: 'He wasn't going to compose Beethoven's Fifth' "
City Limits 3/11/83
KV on Intelligence:
"I was taught that the human brain was the crowning glory of evolution so far, but I think it's a very poor scheme for survival."
Observer 12/27/87
KV on Science Fiction:
"I have been a soreheaded occupant of a file drawer labeled 'Science Fiction' ... and I would like out, particularly since so many serious critics mistake the drawer for a urinal."
Wampeters, Foma, and Granfallons 1974
KV on Superstition:
"We would be a lot safer if the Government would take its money out of science and put it into astrology and the reading of palms.... Only in superstition is there hope. If you want to become a friend of civilization, then become an enemy of the truth and a fanatic for harmless balderdash."
Wampeters, Foma, and Granfallons 1974
KV on War:
"What war has always been is a puberty ceremony. It's a very rough one, but you went away a boy and came back a man, maybe with an eye missing or whatever but godammit you were a man and people had to call you a man thereafter."
City Limits, 3/11/83