The canary bird in the coal mine theory of the arts: artists should be treasured as alarm systems. — Kurt Vonnegut Copy Share Image
People should practice an art in order to make their souls grow and not to make money or become famous. Paint a… — Kurt Vonnegut Copy Share Image
“Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow. Sing in the shower. Dance… — Kurt Vonnegut Copy Share Image
“He had had no experience in asking for a job with a big organization, and Mr. Dilling was making him aware of… — Kurt Vonnegut Copy Share Image
“They were all employed full time as actors in a play they understood, that any human being anywhere could understand and applaud.”… — Kurt Vonnegut Copy Share Image
There is a strong feeling in the Middle West that the artist is not pulling his own weight no matter how hard… — Kurt Vonnegut Copy Share Image
Artists are useful to society because they are so sensitive. They are supersensitive. They keel over like canaries in coal mines filled… — Kurt Vonnegut Copy Share Image
Artists use frauds to make human beings seem more wonderful than they really are. Dancers show us human beings who move much… — Kurt Vonnegut Copy Share Image
“Future civilizations - better civilizations than this one - are going to judge all men by the extent to which they've been… — Kurt Vonnegut Copy Share Image
Practice any art, music, singing, dancing, acting, drawing, painting, sculpting, poetry, fiction, essays, reportage, no matter how well or badly, not to… — Kurt Vonnegut Copy Share Image
I'm an old guy, and I was protesting during the Vietnam War. We killed fifty Asians for every loyal American. Every artist… — Kurt Vonnegut Copy Share Image
“If you want to really hurt you parents, and you don’t have the nerve to be gay, the least you can do… — Kurt Vonnegut Copy Share Image
“Tremendous concentrations of paper wealth have made it possible for a few persons or institutions to endow certain sorts of human playfulness… — Kurt Vonnegut Copy Share Image
During the Vietnam War, which lasted longer than any war we've ever been in - and which we lost - every respectable… — Kurt Vonnegut Copy Share Image
“Contemplating a purported work of art is a social activity. Either you have a rewarding time, or you don't. You don't have… — Kurt Vonnegut Copy Share Image
The arts are not a way to make a living. They are a very human way of making life more bearable. Practicing… — Kurt Vonnegut Copy Share Image
“The arts, the arts, the arts - I don't know why it took me so long to realize how important they are.… — Kurt Vonnegut Copy Share Image
I want you to adore the Universe, to be easily delighted, but to be prompt as well with impatience with those artists… — Kurt Vonnegut Copy Share Image
“Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven's sake. Sing in… — Kurt Vonnegut Copy Share Image
It often is a terrible insult to some families if one of the kids turns out to be an artist and that's… — Kurt Vonnegut Copy Share Image
I think... it is somehow very useful, and maybe even essential, for a fine artist to have to somehow make his peace… — Kurt Vonnegut Copy Share Image
The paintings by dead men who were poor most of their lives are the most valuable pieces in my collection. And if… — Kurt Vonnegut Copy Share Image
“You must bloom as a writer and I must bloom as a painter. Everything else about us is uninteresting.” — Kurt Vonnegut Copy Share
“Have a good nap, did you?” said the porter. “Yes,” said Billy. “Man,” said the porter, “you sure had a hard-on.” — Kurt Vonnegut Copy Share
“I told him that if we doubted that we are demons in Hell, he should read The Mysterious Stranger, which Mark Twain wrote in… — Kurt Vonnegut Copy Share
“Thomas Jefferson High School [..] His high school was named after a slave owner who was also one of the world’s greatest theoreticians on… — Kurt Vonnegut Copy Share
“I had a certain amount of skill as a dramatist, and Dr. Goebbels wanted me to use it” — Kurt Vonnegut Copy Share
I was some of the mud that got to sit up and look around. Lucky me, lucky mud. — Kurt Vonnegut Copy Share
“The town was Newport, Rhode Island, U.S.A., Earth, Solar System, Milky Way.” — Kurt Vonnegut Copy Share
“Her face was one of a kind, a surprising variation that made observers think, Yes--that would be another very nice way for people to… — Kurt Vonnegut Copy Share
“You finally fell in love, I see,” said Salo. “Only an Earthling year ago,” said Constant. “It took us that long to realize that… — Kurt Vonnegut Copy Share
“Like all Earthlings at the point of death, Mary Young sent faint reminders of herself to those who had known her. She released a… — Kurt Vonnegut Copy Share
“And contrast Mary Kathleen, if you will, with my wife Ruth, the Ophelia of the death camps, who believed that even the most intelligent… — Kurt Vonnegut Copy Share
Someday, someday, this crazy world will have to end, And our God will take things back that He to us did lend. And if,… — Kurt Vonnegut Copy Share
“There are plenty of good reasons for fighting," I said, "but no good reason ever to hate without reservation, to imagine that God Almighty… — Kurt Vonnegut Copy Share
