Writing Quotes by Kurt Vonnegut

I'm not a drug salesman. I'm a writer.

— Kurt Vonnegut

Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.

— Kurt Vonnegut

I consider writing an act of good citizenship.

— Kurt Vonnegut

I'd rather have written "Cheers" than anything I've written.

— Kurt Vonnegut

Virtually every writer I know would rather be a musician.

— Kurt Vonnegut

Start [writing] as close to the end as possible.

— Kurt Vonnegut

Writers can treat their mental illnesses every day.

— Kurt Vonnegut

I never knew a writer's wife who wasn't beautiful.

— Kurt Vonnegut

“I propose that every person out of work be required to submit a book report before he or she gets his or…

— Kurt Vonnegut

I chose cultural anthropology, since it offered the greatest opportunity to write high-minded balderdash.

— Kurt Vonnegut

Talent is extremely common. What is rare is the willingness to endure the life of the writer.

— Kurt Vonnegut

Homo Americanus is going to go on speaking and writing the way he always has, no matter what dictionary he owns.

— Kurt Vonnegut

If you can't write clearly, you probably don't think nearly as well as you think you do.

— Kurt Vonnegut

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

— Kurt Vonnegut

I hope to build a reputation as a science-fiction writer. That's the pitch. We'll see.

— Kurt Vonnegut

The reason we write fiction is because it's so much easier to exist spending part of each day in an imaginary world.

— Kurt Vonnegut

I wonder now what Ernest Hemingways dictionary looked like, since he got along so well with dinky words that anybody can spell…

— Kurt Vonnegut

The proper ending for any story about people it seems to me, since life is now a polymer in which the Earth…

— Kurt Vonnegut

“He was a district attorney in Pennsylvania. I was a writer on Cape Cod. We had been privates in the war, infantry…

— Kurt Vonnegut

“As for literary criticism in general: I have long felt that any reviewer who expresses rage and loathing for a novel or…

— kurt Vonnegut

“And lucky indeed is the writer who has grown up in Ireland, for the English spoken there is so amusing and musical.…

— Kurt Vonnegut

“Jesus--if Kilgore Trout could only write!" Rosewater exclaimed. He had a point: Kilgore Trout's unpopularity was deserved. His prose was frightful. Only…

— Kurt Vonnegut

There is no reason why good cannot triumph as often as evil. The triumph of anything is a matter of organization. If…

— Kurt Vonnegut

I believe that reading and writing are the most nourishing forms of meditation anyone has so far found. By reading the writings…

— Kurt Vonnegut

Ink and paper are as cheap as sand or water, almost. No board of directors has to convene in order to decide…

— 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

One of the things that I tell beginning writers is this: If you describe a landscape, or a cityscape, or a seascape,…

— Kurt Vonnegut

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

The feeling persists that no one can simultaneously be a respectable writer and understand how a refrigerator works, just as no gentleman…

— Kurt Vonnegut

“Our power is patience. We have discovered that writing allows even a stupid person to seem halfway intelligent, if only that person…

— 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

I have been a writer since 1949. I am self-taught. I have no theories about writing that might help others. When I…

— 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

“I became a so-called science fiction writer when someone decreed that I was a science fiction writer. I did not want to…

— Kurt Vonnegut

“As I approached my fiftieth birthday, I had become more and more enraged and mystified by the idiot decisions made by my…

— Kurt Vonnegut

“Young Castle called me "Scoop." "Good Morning, Scoop. What's new in the word game?" "I might ask the same of you," I…

— Kurt Vonnegut

“I thought Beatrice Keedsler had joined hands with other old-fashioned storytellers to make people believe that life had leading characters, minor characters,…

— Kurt Vonnegut

“Once I understood what was making America such a dangerous, unhappy nation of people who had nothing to do with real life,…

— Kurt Vonnegut

“1. Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was…

— Kurt Vonnegut

Every writer has to write his speech.

— Kurt Vonnegut