Laughter or crying is what a human being does when there's nothing else he can do. — Kurt Vonnegut Copy Share Image
Humor is a way of holding off how awful life can be, to protect yourself. — Kurt Vonnegut Copy Share Image
The best jokes are dangerous, and dangerous because they are in some way truthful. — Kurt Vonnegut Copy Share Image
The biggest laughs are based on the biggest disappointments and the biggest fears. — Kurt Vonnegut Copy Share Image
You can only be funny if you have matters of great importance on your mind. — Kurt Vonnegut Copy Share Image
“How do jokes work? The beginning of each good one challenges you to think.” — Kurt Vonnegut Copy Share Image
A joke is like building a mousetrap from scratch. You have to work pretty hard to make the thing snap when it… — Kurt Vonnegut Copy Share Image
I'm screamingly funny, you know, I really am in the books. And that helps because I'm funnier than a lot of people,… — Kurt Vonnegut Copy Share Image
I learned how to make jokes because I wanted to give people as much fun as they did, and I guess I… — Kurt Vonnegut Copy Share Image
The bounties of space, of infinite outwardness, were three: empty heroics, low comedy, and pointless death. — Kurt Vonnegut Copy Share Image
When I'm being funny, I try not to offend. I don't think much of what I've done has been in really ghastly… — Kurt Vonnegut Copy Share Image
“One more optional piece of advice: If you ever have to give a speech, start with a joke, if you know one.” — Kurt Vonnegut Copy Share Image
“Humor is a way of holding off how awful life can be, to protect yourself. Finally, you get just too tired, and… — Kurt Vonnegut Copy Share Image
Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion. I myself prefer to laugh, since there is less cleaning do to… — Kurt Vonnegut Copy Share Image
Jokes can be noble. Laughs are exactly as honorable as tears. Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion, to… — Kurt Vonnegut Copy Share Image
“Laughs are exactly as honorable as tears. Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion, to the futility of thinking… — Kurt Vonnegut Copy Share Image
“And how should we behave during this Apocalypse? We should be unusually kind to one another, certainly. But we should also stop… — Kurt Vonnegut Copy Share Image
“Before Dwayne entered his inner office, he read one of many comical signs which Francine had put up on the wall in… — 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
All the great story lines are great practical jokes that people fall for over and over again. — Kurt Vonnegut Copy Share Image
“You say very funny things. I am sorry I can't say funny things back. This is not a funny time for me.” — Kurt Vonnegut Copy Share Image
I don't think there would be many jokes, if there weren't constant frustration and fear and so forth. It's a response to… — Kurt Vonnegut Copy Share Image
The youngest child in any family is always a jokemaker, because a joke is the only way he can enter into an… — Kurt Vonnegut Copy Share Image
I think jokes are a perfectly viable form of literature. Some critics take issue with me because I make my points and… — Kurt Vonnegut Copy Share Image
And we all vied, in saving face, to be the greatest student of human nature, the person with the quickest sense of… — Kurt Vonnegut Copy Share Image
People hate it when they're tickled because laughter is not pleasant, if it goes on too long. I think it's a desperate… — 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
