On the first day I travelled back from winter break, I read Slaughterhouse Five at the recommendations of a number of my friends. Needless to say, I couldn't put it down and I'm only sad I couldn't appreciate him when he was still alive a couple of years ago. Today I read his last book, A Man without A Country. It is a compilation of essays and artwork he's done in the past and his outlook on contemporary politics and Humanism. This book is by far the most quotable book I have perhaps ever read, but that's what I thought about Slaughterhouse Five. Anyways, I just wanted to share some of my very favorite quotes!"If you really want to hurt your parents, and you don't have the nerve to be gay, the least you can do is go into the arts. I'm not kidding. The arts are not a way to make a living. They are a very human way of making life more bearable. Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven's sake. Sing in the shower. Dance to the radio. Tell stories. Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem. Do it as well as you possibly can. You will get an enormous reward. You will have created something."
"The truth is, we know so little about life, we don't really know what the good news is and what the bad news is."
"There are two ways of closing a manila envelope. I use both of them. First I lick the mucilage-it's kind of sexy. I put the little thin metal diddle through the hole-I never did know what they call them. Then I glue the flap down." (I like this one because of the mucilage line and the word "diddle")
"How beautiful is to get up and go out and do something. We are here on the Earth to fart around. Don't let anybody tell you any different.
"THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD WAS MUSIC" (he wants that on his tombstone... I'm not sure if that happened though... I hope so)
"The guesser (in reference to a person in power who is smart but doesn't really know what whether he is right or not and certainly doesn't give a damn about the human life) revealed something else about themselves, too, which we should duly note today. They aren't really interested in saving lives. What matters to them is being listened to-as, however, ignorantly, their guessing goes on and on and on. If there's anything they hate, it's a wise human.
So be one anyway. Save our lives and your lives, too. Be honorable."
"'Welcome to Earth, young man,' I said. 'It's hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It's round and wet and crowded. At the outside, Joe, you've got about a hundred years here. There's only one rule that I know of: Goddamn it, Joe, you've got to be kind!'"
"He announced that the new high was banana peels taken rectally. So then the FBI scientists stuffed banana peels up their asses to find out if this was true or not. Or so we hoped."
"the excrement has hit the air-conditioning big time, big time"
"So I do the same now, and so do my kids and grandkids. And I urge you to please notice when you are happy, and exclaim or murmur or think at some point, 'If this isn't nice, I don't know what is'"
"And there, I've just used a semi-colon, which at the outset I told you never to use. It is to make a point that I did it. The point is: Rules only take us so far, even good rules."
So, I hope this encourages you to go out and read Mr. Vonnegut ASAP. This man was in his seventies and eighties when he wrote this stuff!
No comments:
Post a Comment