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To celebrate Vonnegut’s life and mark his passing, a sample of his wit and wisdom:
On the 1945 firebombing of Dresden, an event he witnessed as a American POW:
“The firebombing of Dresden was a work of art. … [A] tower of smoke and flame to commemorate the rage and heartbreak of so many who had had their lives warped or ruined by the indescribable greed and vanity and cruelty of Germany.â€
On reading:
“I have so many friends who are writers that I read only friends’ books. I don’t have any systematic reading program. I’ll read anything that comes to hand.â€
On research:
“The Encyclopaedia Britannica is more than adequate for what I want to know. When I wrote The Sirens of Titan, I found out everything I wanted to know about the solar system from a children’s book.â€
On literary longevity:
“As an actuarial matter, writers of fiction have done their best work by about the time they’re 45, and I guess Tolstoy was an exception, and there have been some others, but anyway, friends of mine who’ve lived this long have customarily written crap.â€
On personal destiny:
“I never thought it was my destiny to be a writer. It just turned out it was the only way I could make a living,”
On his success:
“I’m just the asshole who broke the bank at Monte Carlo,”
On cynicism:
“Mark Twain finally stopped laughing at his own agony and that of those around him. He denounced life on this planet as a crock. He died.â€
Lastly, on home (told to a Globe & Mail reporter two years ago):
“I feel as I did when the Second World War ended: ‘Please, I’ve done everything I’m supposed to do, can’t I go home now?’ Where is home? I’ve wondered where home is, and I realized, it’s not Mars or someplace like that, it’s Indianapolis when I was nine years old. I had a brother and a sister, a cat and a dog, and a mother and a father and uncles and aunts. And there’s no way I can get there again.”
Read the NYT’s obit; 1976 interview at the P.E.N. Congress; and 1981 radio inteview.
April 12th, 2007 at 3:27 pm
I have just taken against Vonnegut.
April 13th, 2007 at 8:45 am
John, thanks for posting these. I dutifully read several Vonnegut novels in college, and they left me cold, as did his general misanthropy, but that final quote about going home humanizes him for me more than a hundred obituaries possibly could.
April 30th, 2007 at 1:23 am
Good on ya Bro for doing this.
On my bookshelf, by my bed is still”Bluebeard” which I stole from Michael’s former bookshelf in Creston, and enjoyed thoroughly, well not enjoyed, but got totally involved with for the while I read it. Had sounds reminesent of Dad, I guess. And that was captivating for me. His son is an excellent writer too. Ever read “Eden Express”
Bye,
~~Sis