I consider anybody a twerp who hasn't read the greatest American short story, which is 'Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,' by Ambrose… — Kurt Vonnegut Copy Share Image
Take it from somebody who has been around for a million years: When you get right down to it, food is practically… — Kurt Vonnegut Copy Share Image
Don't put anything into a story that does not reveal character or advance the action. — Kurt Vonnegut Copy Share Image
In the era of big brains, life stories could end up any which way. Look at mine. — Kurt Vonnegut Copy Share Image
All the great story lines are great practical jokes that people fall for over and over again. — Kurt Vonnegut Copy Share Image
Somebody gets into trouble, then gets out of it again. People love that story. They never get tired of it. — Kurt Vonnegut Copy Share Image
A story has to be a good date, because the reader can stop at any time. Remember, readers are selfish and have… — Kurt Vonnegut Copy Share Image
What do my science fiction stories have in common with pornography? Fantasies of an impossibly hospitable world, I'm told. — Kurt Vonnegut Copy Share Image
Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To heck with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding… — Kurt Vonnegut Copy Share Image
Much of the blame is the malarkey that artists have created to glorify war, which as we all know, is nonsense, and… — Kurt Vonnegut Copy Share Image
The moral of the story is we're here on Earth to fart around. And, of course, the computers will do us out… — Kurt Vonnegut Copy Share Image
Because we grew up surrounded by big dramatic story arcs in books and movies, we think our lives are supposed to be… — Kurt Vonnegut Copy Share Image
I taught writing for a while and whenever somebody would tell me they were going to write about their dad, I would… — Kurt Vonnegut Copy Share Image
Swoopers write a story quickly, higgledy-piggledy, crinkum-crankum, any which way. Then they go over it again painstakingly, fixing everything that is just… — Kurt Vonnegut Copy Share Image
egregious. most people think that word means terrible or unheard of or unforgivable. it has a much more interesting story than that… — Kurt Vonnegut Copy Share Image
The proper ending for any story about people it seems to me, since life is now a polymer in which the Earth… — Kurt Vonnegut Copy Share Image
A great swindle of our time is the assumption that science has made religion obsolete. All science has damaged is the story… — Kurt Vonnegut Copy Share Image
The Great Depression was going on, so that the station and the streets teemed with homeless people, just as they do today.… — Kurt Vonnegut Copy Share Image
The Chicago City News Bureau was a tripwire for all the newspapers in town when I was there, and there were five… — 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
Somebody realized, hey, students are printing dummy ads and dummy news stories, why don't they really print something. So there was the… — Kurt Vonnegut Copy Share Image
I try to keep deep love out of my stories because, once that particular subject comes up, it is almost impossible to… — Kurt Vonnegut Copy Share Image
I think I succeeded as a writer because I did not come out of an English department. I used to write in… — Kurt Vonnegut Copy Share Image
I think about my education sometimes. I went to the University of Chicago for awhile after the Second World War. I was… — Kurt Vonnegut Copy Share Image
Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story… — Kurt Vonnegut Copy Share Image
There are almost no characters in this story, and almost no dramatic confrontations, because most of the people in it are so… — Kurt Vonnegut Copy Share Image
Kilgore Trout once wrote a short story which was a dialogue between two pieces of yeast. They were discussing the possible purposes… — Kurt Vonnegut Copy Share Image
If a person survives an ordinary span of sixty years or more, there is every chance that his or her life as… — Kurt Vonnegut Copy Share Image
If you make people laugh or cry about little black marks on sheets of white paper, what is that but a practical… — Kurt Vonnegut Copy Share Image
Sing in the shower. Dance to the radio. Tell stories. Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem. Do it… — Kurt Vonnegut Copy Share Image
I used my daughter's crayons for each main character. One end of the wallpaper was the beginning of the story, and the… — Kurt Vonnegut Copy Share Image
“The library is full of stories of supposed triumphs which makes me very suspicious of it. It's misleading for people to read… — Kurt Vonnegut Copy Share Image
“The Bible may be the Greatest Story Ever Told, but the most popular story you can ever tell is about a good-looking… — 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
