Want Quotes by Kurt Vonnegut

“Every character has to want something, even if it's only a glass of water.”

— Kurt Vonnegut

Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.

— Kurt Vonnegut

If you want to break the rules of grammar, first learn the rules of grammar.

— Kurt Vonnegut

I can have oodles of charm when I want to.

— Kurt Vonnegut

“Make a character want something — that’s how you begin.”

— Kurt Vonnegut

You want to know something? We are still in the Dark Ages. The Dark Ages--they haven't ended yet.

— Kurt Vonnegut

I think you guys are going to have to come up with a lot of wonderful new lies, or people just aren't…

— Kurt Vonnegut

Freud said he didn't know what women wanted. I know what women want. They want a whole lot of people to talk…

— Kurt Vonnegut

Another flaw in the human character is that everybody wants to build and nobody wants to do maintenance.

— Kurt Vonnegut

Doesn't anything socialistic make you want to throw up? Like great public schools, or health insurance for all?

— 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

profanity and obscenity entitle people who don't want unpleasant information to close their ears and eyes to you.

— Kurt Vonnegut

What do men want? They want a lot of pals, and they wish that people wouldn't get so mad at them.

— Kurt Vonnegut

Armistice Day has become Veterans' Day. Armistice Day was sacred. Veterans' Day is not. So I will throw Veterans' Day over my…

— Kurt Vonnegut

The Population Reference Bureau predicts that the world's total population will double to 7,000,000,000 before the year 2000. I suppose they will…

— Kurt Vonnegut

Honest to God, Bill, the way things are going, all I can think of is that I'm a character in a book…

— Kurt Vonnegut

You know what truth is? [...] It's some crazy thing my neighbor believes. If I want to make friends with him, I…

— Kurt Vonnegut

I want a military funeral when I die—the bugler, the flag on the casket, the ceremonial firing squad, the hallowed ground… It…

— Kurt Vonnegut

We would be a lot safer if the Government would take its money out of science and put it into astrology and…

— Kurt Vonnegut

Son--they say there isn't any royalty in this country, but do you want me to tell you how to be king of…

— Kurt Vonnegut

I don't know what anybody else in the world would want to thank America for, but man, it [jazz] works. What I…

— Kurt Vonnegut

The prostitutes worked for a pimp now. He was splendid and cruel. He was a god to them. He took their free…

— 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

It is so short and jumbled and jangled, Sam, because there is nothing intelligent to say about a massacre. Everybody is supposed…

— Kurt Vonnegut

It goes against the American storytelling grain to have someone in a situation he can't get out of, but I think this…

— Kurt Vonnegut

As for myself: I had come to the conclusion that there was nothing sacred about myself or any human being, that we…

— Kurt Vonnegut

There are plenty of good reasons for fighting...but no good reason to ever hate without reservation, to imagine that God Almighty hates…

— Kurt Vonnegut

While on the subject of burning books, I want to congratulate librarians, not famous for their physical strength, who, all over this…

— Kurt Vonnegut

I realize that some of you may have come in hopes of hearing tips on how to become a professional writer. I…

— Kurt Vonnegut

I've got at least one tiny corner of the universe I can make just the way I want it ...

— Kurt Vonnegut

If it weren't for the message of mercy and pity in Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, I wouldn't want to be a…

— Kurt Vonnegut

Only nut cases want to be president. This was true even in high school. Only clearly disturbed people ran for class president.

— Kurt Vonnegut

There is a tragic flaw in our precious constitution, and I don't know what can be done to fix it. This is…

— Kurt Vonnegut

Where's evil? It's that large part of every man that wants to hate without limit, that wants to hate with God on…

— Kurt Vonnegut

When I used to teach creative writing, I would tell the students to make their characters want something right away.

— Kurt Vonnegut

[People] want to feel superior, so they imagine we're Bible thumpers and uneducated and all that.

— Kurt Vonnegut

Much of the blame is the malarkey that artists have created to glorify war, which as we all know, is nonsense, and…

— Kurt Vonnegut

Someday, someday, this crazy world will have to end, And our God will take things back that He to us did lend.…

— Kurt Vonnegut

I have become an enthusiast for the printed word again. I have to be that, I now understand, because I want to…

— Kurt Vonnegut

I want you to adore the Universe, to be easily delighted, but to be prompt as well with impatience with those artists…

— Kurt Vonnegut