Art Quotes by Kurt Vonnegut

The practice of art isn't to make a living. It's to make your soul grow.

— Kurt Vonnegut

No art is possible without a dance with death.

— Kurt Vonnegut

“No art is possible without a dance with death, he wrote.”

— Kurt Vonnegut

Literature is the only art in which the audience performs the score.

— Kurt Vonnegut

“The function of art is to make people like life more than they do.”

— Kurt Vonnegut

“The hare of history once more overtakes the tortoise of art.”

— Kurt Vonnegut

You don't do art for any other reason than to help your soul grow.

— Kurt Vonnegut

The arts are not a way to make a living,

— Kurt Vonnegut

“Participation in an art, although unrewarded by wealth or fame...is a way to make one's soul grow.”

— Kurt Vonnegut

The artist makes his living by pretending, by putting it in a meaningful hole though no such holes exist.

— Kurt Vonnegut

I am from a family of artists. Here I am, making a living in the arts. It has not been a rebellion.…

— Kurt Vonnegut

The arts are not a way to make a living. They are a very human way of making life more bearable.

— Kurt Vonnegut

“She had never seen me draw–because not drawing and forgetting everything I knew about art, I thought, was the magic key to…

— Kurt Vonnegut

If you really want to hurt your parents and you don't have nerve enough to be homosexual, the least you can do…

— Kurt Vonnegut

No one can amount to a damn in the arts if he becomes sweetly reasonable, seeing all sides of a picture, forgiving…

— Kurt Vonnegut

People should practice an art in order to make their souls grow and not to make money or become famous. Paint a…

— Kurt Vonnegut

“They were all employed full time as actors in a play they understood, that any human being anywhere could understand and applaud.”…

— Kurt Vonnegut

“Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow. Sing in the shower. Dance…

— Kurt Vonnegut

“He had had no experience in asking for a job with a big organization, and Mr. Dilling was making him aware of…

— Kurt Vonnegut

There is a strong feeling in the Middle West that the artist is not pulling his own weight no matter how hard…

— Kurt Vonnegut

Artists are useful to society because they are so sensitive. They are supersensitive. They keel over like canaries in coal mines filled…

— Kurt Vonnegut

Artists use frauds to make human beings seem more wonderful than they really are. Dancers show us human beings who move much…

— Kurt Vonnegut

“Future civilizations - better civilizations than this one - are going to judge all men by the extent to which they've been…

— Kurt Vonnegut

“No art is possible without a dance with death, he wrote. The truth is death, he wrote. I’ve fought nicely against it…

— Kurt Vonnegut

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

“There's no question about it. The arts are an extremely high-risk situation. People are willing to take these extraordinary chances to become…

— Kurt Vonnegut

“Rumfoord had known that Constant would try to debase the picture by using it in commerce. Constant's father had done a similar…

— Kurt Vonnegut

“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

“Tremendous concentrations of paper wealth have made it possible for a few persons or institutions to endow certain sorts of human playfulness…

— Kurt Vonnegut

During the Vietnam War, which lasted longer than any war we've ever been in - and which we lost - every respectable…

— Kurt Vonnegut

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

Artists use frauds to make human beings seem more wonderful than they really are. Dancers show us human beings who move much…

— Kurt Vonnegut

“Here is a lesson in creative writing. First rule: Do not use semicolons. They are transvestite hermaphrodites representing absolutely nothing. All they…

— Kurt Vonnegut

“. . . Practice any art, music, singing, dancing, acting, drawing, painting, sculpting, poetry, fiction, essays, reportage, no matter how well or…

— Kurt Vonnegut

The canary bird in the coal mine theory of the arts: artists should be treasured as alarm systems.

— Kurt Vonnegut

“To practice any art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow. So dot it.”

— Kurt Vonnegut

That’s the secret of artistic unity. Anybody can achieve it, if he or she will make something with only one person in…

— Kurt Vonnegut

One thing I hate about school committees today is that they cut arts programs out of the curriculum because they say the…

— Kurt Vonnegut

The primary benefit of practicing any art, whether well or badly, is that it enables one's soul to grow.

— Kurt Vonnegut

“The arts..are a very human way of making life more bearable. Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a…

— Kurt Vonnegut