Slaughter House Five Quotes - Page 2

• - Why me? - That is a very Earthling question to ask, Mr. Pilgrim. Why you? Why us for that matter? Why anything? Because this moment simply is. Have you ever seen bugs trapped in amber? - Yes. - Well, here we are, Mr. Pilgrim, trapped in the amber of this moment. There is no why.

  Kurt Vonnegut

  Slaughterhouse Five, Amber, Matter

  Kurt Vonnegut (1969). “Slaughterhouse-five: or, The children's crusade, a duty-dance with death”

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• Americans, like human beings everywhere, believe many things that are obviously untrue, the monograph went on. Their most destructive untruth is that it is very easy for any American to make money. They will not acknowledge how in fact how hard money is to come by, and, therefore, those who have no money blame and blame and blame themselves.

  Kurt Vonnegut

  Believe, Slaughterhouse Five, Facts

  "Slaughterhouse-Five, or The Children's Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death". Book by Kurt Vonnegut (Chapter 5, p. 129), 1969.

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• If I am going to spend eternity visiting this moment and that, I'm grateful that so many of those moments are nice.

  Kurt Vonnegut

  Nice, Grateful, Slaughterhouse Five

  KURT VONNEGUT, JR (1969). “SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE”

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• There are almost no characters in this story, and almost no dramatic confrontations, because most of the people in it are so sick and so much the listless playthings of enormous forces. One of the main effects of war, after all, is that people are discouraged from being characters.

  Kurt Vonnegut

  War, Character, People

  KURT VONNEGUT JR (1969). “SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE”

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• All this happened, more or less. The war parts, anyway, are pretty much true.

  Kurt Vonnegut

  War, Slaughterhouse Five, Literature

  Kurt Vonnegut (1969). “Slaughterhouse-five, Or, The Children's Crusade: A Duty-dance with Death”, Random House LLC

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• People aren’t supposed to look back. I’m certainly not going to do it anymore.

  Kurt Vonnegut

  People, Slaughterhouse Five, Looks

  KURT VONNEGUT, JR (1969). “SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE”

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• She was a dull person, but a sensational invitation to make babies.

  Kurt Vonnegut

  Baby, Slaughterhouse Five, Dull

  KURT VONNEGUT JR (1969). “SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE”

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• And Lot's wife, of course, was told not to look back where all those people and their homes had been. But she did look back, and I love her for that, because it was so human. So she was turned into a pillar of salt. So it goes.

  Kurt Vonnegut

  Home, People, Wife

  Kurt Vonnegut (1969). “Slaughterhouse-five: or, The children's crusade, a duty-dance with death”

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• Why you? Why us for that matter? Why anything? Because this moment simply is.

  Kurt Vonnegut

  Slaughterhouse Five, Matter, Why Me

  KURT VONNEGUT JR (1969). “SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE”

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• ...when a person dies he only appears to die. He is still very much alive in the past, present, and future, always have existed, always will exist.

  Kurt Vonnegut

  Past, Slaughterhouse Five, Alive

  Harold Bloom, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (2009). “Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-five”, p.8, Infobase Publishing

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• We went to the New York World's Fair, saw what the past had been like, according to the Ford Motor Car Company and Walt Disney, saw what the future would be like, according to General Motors. And I asked myself about the present: how wide it was, how deep it was, how much was mine to keep.

  Kurt Vonnegut

  New York, Past, Car

  KURT VONNEGUT JR (1969). “SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE”

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• 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 all want dignity, I said.

  Kurt Vonnegut

  Years, Slaughterhouse Five, Population

  KURT VONNEGUT, JR (1969). “SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE”

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• If what Billy Pilgrim learned from the Tralfamadorians is true, that we will all live forever, no matter how dead we may sometimes seem to be, I am not overjoyed. Still--if I am going to spend eternity visiting this moment and that, I'm grateful that so many of those moments are nice.

  Kurt Vonnegut

  Nice, Grateful, Forever

  Kurt Vonnegut (1969). “Slaughterhouse-five, Or, The Children's Crusade: A Duty-dance with Death”, Random House LLC

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• She upset Billy simply by being his mother. She made him feel embarrassed and ungrateful and weak because she had gone to so much trouble to give him life, and to keep that life going, and Billy didn't really like life at all.

  Kurt Vonnegut

  Mother, Giving, Ungrateful

  KURT VONNEGUT JR (1969). “SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE”

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• I have this disease late at night sometimes, involving alcohol and the telephone.

  Kurt Vonnegut

  Night, Alcohol, Slaughterhouse Five

  Harold Bloom, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (2009). “Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-five”, p.129, Infobase Publishing

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• The gun made a ripping sound like the opening of a zipper on the fly of God Almighty.

  Kurt Vonnegut

  Gun, Zippers, Slaughterhouse Five

  Harold Bloom, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (2009). “Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-five”, p.51, Infobase Publishing

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• They do not love one another because they do not love themselves.

  Kurt Vonnegut

  Slaughterhouse Five, Love One Another, Slaughterhouse 5

  KURT VONNEGUT, JR (1969). “SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE”

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• It was very exciting for her, taking his dignity away in the name of love.

  Kurt Vonnegut

  Names, Slaughterhouse Five, Dignity

  KURT VONNEGUT JR (1969). “SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE”

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• The time would not pass. Somebody was playing with the clocks, and not only the electronic clocks but the wind-up kind too. The second hand on my watch would twitch once, and a year would pass, and then it would twitch again. There was nothing I could do about it. As an Earthling I had to believe whatever clocks said -and calendars.

  Kurt Vonnegut

  Believe, Hands, Years

  Kurt Vonnegut (1969). “Slaughterhouse-five: or, The children's crusade, a duty-dance with death”

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• I have told my sons that they are not under any circumstances to take part in massacres, and that the news of massacres of enemies is not to fill them with satisfaction or glee. I have also told them not to work for companies which make massacre machinery, and to express contempt for people who think we need machinery like that.

  Kurt Vonnegut

  Son, Thinking, People

  KURT VONNEGUT JR (1969). “SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE”

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• I don't think that Slaughterhouse-Five was successful movie material. In fact, Vonnegut's books mostly I don't feel are movie material.

  Jerry Garcia

  Movie, Book, Successful

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• There isn’t any particular relationship between the messages, except that the author has chosen them carefully, so that, when seen all at once, they produce an image of life that is beautiful and surprising and deep. There is no beginning, no middle, no end, no suspense, no moral, no causes, no effects. What we love in our books are the depths of many marvelous moments seen all at one time.

  Kurt Vonnegut

  Love, Beautiful, Book

  KURT VONNEGUT JR (1969). “SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE”

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• Unusual travel suggestions are dancing lessons from God.

  Kurt Vonnegut

  Travel, Climbing, Dancing

  "Cat's Cradle". Book by Kurt Vonnegut, 1963.

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• America is the wealthiest nation on Earth, but its people are mainly poor, and poor Americans are urged to hate themselves... It is in fact a crime for an American to be poor, even though America is a nation of poor. Every other nation has folk traditions of men who were poor but extremely wise and virtuous, and therefore more estimable than anyone with power and gold. No such tales are told by American poor. They mock themselves and glorify their betters.

  Kurt Vonnegut

  Wise, Hate, Men

  "Slaughterhouse-Five, or The Children's Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death". Book by Kurt Vonnegut, 1969.

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