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Kurt Vonnegut Quotes about Character

All Kurt Vonnegut Quotes Accidents Age Alcohol Apologizing Army Art Atheism Atheist Belief Bitterness Business Chaos Character quotes Chemistry Children Christ Church College Communication Community Compassion Competition Country Creativity Culture Curiosity Dancing Democracy Design Dignity Doubt Dying Earth Evil Evolution Expectations Feelings Fighting Food Forgiveness Frustration Fun Funny Giving God Happiness Hard Work Hate Heart Heaven Hell Hiroshima Home Humanity Hurt Ignorance Imagination Inspirational Jazz Jesus Laughter Life Literature Loneliness Love Luck Lying Making Love Management Maturity Meaning Of Life Military Mountain Music Nature Opportunity Pain Past Philosophy Politics Progress Purpose Reading Reality Religion Revenge Running Safety School Science Science Fiction Shame Sleep Smoking Socialism Son Soul Students Stupidity Style Survival Teaching Technology Time Today Trade Tragedy Train Universe Waiting Wall War Water Wife Work Writing

Every sentence must do one of two things-reveal character or advance the action.

Every sentence must do one of two things-reveal character or advance the action.

Writing, Character, Two

Kurt Vonnegut (1999). “Bagombo Snuff Box: Uncollected Short Fiction”, Putnam Publishing Group

Another flaw in the human character is that everybody wants to build and nobody wants to do maintenance.

Character, Imperfection, Hocus Pocus

Kurt Vonnegut (1997). “Hocus Pocus”, p.167, Penguin

Be a sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them in order that the reader may see what they are made of.

Sweet, Writing, Character

Kurt Vonnegut (1999). “Bagombo Snuff Box: Uncollected Short Fiction”, Putnam Publishing Group

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.

War, Character, People

KURT VONNEGUT JR (1969). “SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE”

One of the main effects of war, after all, is that people are discouraged from being characters.

War, Character, People

KURT VONNEGUT JR (1969). “SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE”

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

Writing, Character, Roots

Kurt Vonnegut (1999). “Bagombo Snuff Box: Uncollected Short Fiction”, Putnam Publishing Group

Characters paralyzed by the meaninglessness of modern life still have to drink water from time to time.

Character, Water, Modern Life

Kurt Vonnegut (2011). “Kurt Vonnegut: The Last Interview: And Other Conversations”, p.49, Melville House

When I used to teach creative writing, I would tell the students to make their characters want something right away - even if it's only a glass of water. Characters paralyzed by the meaninglessness of modern life still have to drink water from time to time.

Writing, Character, Glasses

Kurt Vonnegut (1982). “Palm Sunday: An Autobiographical Collage”, Dell Books

Don't put anything into a story that does not reveal character or advance the action.

Character, Doe, Stories

It's the writer's job to stage confrontations, so the characters will say surprising and revealing things, and educate and entertain us all.

Jobs, Character, Stage

Kurt Vonnegut (1988). “Conversations with Kurt Vonnegut”, p.189, Univ. Press of Mississippi

I have become an enthusiast for the printed word again. I have to be that, I now understand, because I want to be a character in all of my works. I can do that in print. In a movie, somehow, the author always vanishes.

Character, Printed Word, Want

"Between Time and Timbuktu". Movie script by Kurt Vonnegut et al. Preface, 1972.

Honest to God, Bill, the way things are going, all I can think of is that I'm a character in a book by somebody who wants to write about somebody who suffers all the time.

Book, Character, Writing

Kurt Vonnegut (1999). “Breakfast of Champions: Or, Goodbye Blue Monday!”, CNIB, 197

A sum of money is a leading character in this tale about people, just as a sum of honey might properly be a leading character in a tale about bees.

Character, People, Might

"God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater". Book by Kurt Vonnegut. Opening line, 1965.

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

Writing, Character, Glasses

"Uncovering the secrets of storytelling" by Paul Willis, www.cnn.com. December 19, 2008.

When I used to teach creative writing, I would tell the students to make their characters want something right away.

Writing, Character, Want Something

Kurt Vonnegut (1988). “Conversations with Kurt Vonnegut”, p.189, Univ. Press of Mississippi

Everything of mine which has been filmed so far has been one character short, and that character is me.

Character, Mines, Has Beens

"Between Time and Timbuktu". Movie script by Kurt Vonnegut et al. Preface, 1972.

I used my daughter's crayons for each main character. One end of the wallpaper was the beginning of the story, and the other end was the end, and then there was all that middle part, which was the middle.

Daughter, Character, Stories

Harold Bloom, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (2009). “Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-five”, p.6, Infobase Publishing

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