Talk:Kurt Vonnegut

This was posted by someone earlier:

• There are only two important things to remember in life. The first is that you should be good to other people. The second is that God doesn't care whether you are or not.
  • This is pretty close but not an exact quote.

I know of no exact matches and until there is something with a definite source, it probably should not be on the main article page. ~ Kalki 06:45, 21 Jun 2004 (UTC)

In attributed "If you want to study a granfalloon just take the skin off a toy balloon" comes from Cat's Cradle

Dwarf Kirlston -Jan 29

The quote from A Man Without a Country say this:

In case you haven't noticed, we are now as feared and hated all over the world as the Nazis once were.

The In These Times column where the line originally appeared has it this way:

In case you haven’t noticed, we are now almost as feared and hated all over the world as the Nazis were.

The word almost in the second version seems to change the quote substantially. Does the line appear in the book without it? WillMatthews 16:16, 11 November 2005 (UTC)

Thanks for the info. I have now corrected the quote to read as it does in the original article. I think it unlikely that it was deliberately changed in the book, but do not have a copy to check. ~ Kalki 16:44, 11 November 2005 (UTC)

Removed some of the quotes from Attributed that were in other sections as well.

Moved quotes from wikipedia article

I moved the quotes from the Wikipedia article on Vonnegut to here. Commonbrick 22:46, 19 Mar 2005 (UTC)

About three quotes appear both in the Attrbitude section and under their respective book.

I'd like to teach Iraq about Democracy because we're so experienced with it. First they should know that after 100 years they should free their slaves. Then after 150 years they should give their women the right to vote. Oh, and of course when they start it all they should begin with some genocide and ethnic cleansing. (Sarcasticly) Appearance on "The Daily Show," September 2005

Is this correct? I don't think that is exactly what he said. I'm not sure. --64.192.21.58 23:48, 15 September 2005 (UTC)

In attributed the quote is from Cats Cradle it is allready written there, I am removing the duplicated unsourced quote.

• Peculiar travel suggestions are dancing lessons from God.

23:51, 25 October 2005 (UTC)

Citing sources

Some of the miscellaneous sourced statements do not actually have sources. For example, "Vonnegut on Humanism" is not a source, and "Interview Playboy (1973)" should be much more specific. --65.147.0.216 16:19, 5 September 2006 (UTC)

Pay no attention when I laugh...

Someone help me out here. I'm no literary critic, I just love the quote, "Pay no attention when I laugh... I'm a notorious pervert in that respect." I had the last, longer quote under Cat's Cradle. Is it too much? Does it have the same effect out of context?

I think it would be better without the context, just "Pay no attention when I laugh... I'm a notorious pervert in that respect." Ed Fitzgerald 07:42, 14 April 2007 (UTC)

Is the note necessary?

I'm new to the Wiki updating so want to refrain from stepping on toes immediately. After the quote, "The only difference between Bush and Hitler is that Hitler was elected" there is a note about the validity of this statement. This is largely a useless designation, I believe. Since this is the Wikiquote and simply supposed to be a repository of quotes, correct?

Comments after the quotes are allowed here, especially if there are specific details about the context or validity of the statement to note. This comment seems to have been added by someone repudiating Vonnegut's observation about Hitler's rise to Chancellorship; I don't think the observation is absolutely necessary, but the statement is truthful, and now that it is there, I wouldn't remove it entirely, but it could be editied slightly. ~ Kalki 03:08, 18 January 2008 (UTC)

Misattributed ?

In the Unsourced section, there's a quote that says "We have to continually be jumping off cliffs and developing our wings on the way down."

Two very similar quotes are on Ray Bradbury's Wikiquote page:

In Sourced:

• Go to the edge of the cliff and jump off. Build your wings on the way down. Brown Daily Herald (24 March 1995)

In Unsourced:

• If we listened to our intellect we'd never have a love affair. We'd never have a friendship. We'd never go in business because we'd be cynical: "It's gonna go wrong." Or "She's going to hurt me." Or,"I've had a couple of bad love affairs, so therefore . . ." Well, that's nonsense. You're going to miss life. You've got to jump off the cliff all the time and build your wings on the way down.

added "See the nigger fly the airplane!" to 'Hocus Pocus' (1990)

Request for Quote about Atheists

I have in my memory a quote which I've thought about often, but can't find anywhere. I believe I read it in a Kurt Vonnegut essay, and the idea is something like this: Every atheist has a secret dream - To meet God when they die; to learn that they had led a just life; and to be smug in the knowledge that they, unlike believers, had done so independently, without the bribe of Heaven or the threat of Hell to influence them.

Does that sound familiar to anyone?