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Kurt Vonnegut Quotes about War

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Nowadays, of course, just about our only solvent industry is the merchandising of death, bankrolled by our grandchildren.

Nowadays, of course, just about our only solvent industry is the merchandising of death, bankrolled by our grandchildren.

War, Grandchildren, Merchandising

Kurt Vonnegut (2009). “Bluebeard: A Novel”, p.71, Dial Press

All the people of all the nations which had fought in the First World War were silent during the eleventh minute of the eleventh hour of Armistice Day, which was the eleventh day of the eleventh month. It was during that minute in nineteen hundred and eighteen, that millions upon millions of human beings stopped butchering one another. I have talked to old men who were on battlefields during that minute. They have told me in one way or another that the sudden silence was the Voice of God. So we still have among us some men who can remember when God spoke clearly to mankind.

War, Men, Voice

"Breakfast Of Champions". Book by Kurt Vonnegut, 1973.

I myself feel that our country, for whose Constitution I fought in a just war, might as well have been invaded by Martians and body snatchers. Sometimes I wish it had been. What has happened, though, is that it has been taken over by means of the sleaziest, low-comedy, Keystone Cops-style coup d'etat imaginable.

Country, War, Taken

"Custodians of chaos" by Kurt Vonnegut, www.theguardian.com. January 20, 2006.

The feeling persists that no one can simultaneously be a respectable writer and understand how a refrigerator works, just as no gentleman wears a brown suit in the city. Colleges may be to blame. English majors are encouraged, I know, to hate chemistry and physics, and to be proud because they are not dull and creepy and humorless and war-oriented like the engineers across the quad. And our most impressive critics have commonly been such English majors, and they are squeamish about technology to this very day. So it is natural for them to despise science fiction.

Hate, War, College

A nice thing about war-not that anything about war is nice, I guess-is that while it's going on and you're in it, you never worry about doing the right thing.

War, Nice, Worry

Kurt Vonnegut (2009). “Player Piano”, p.206, Dial Press

Nowadays, of course, just about our only solvent industry is the merchandising of death, bankrolled by our grandchildren, so that the message of our principal art forms, movies and television and political speeches and newspaper columns, for the sake of the economy, simply has to be this: War is hell, all right, but the only way a boy can become a man is in a shoot-out of some kind, preferably, but by no means necessarily, on a battlefield.

Art, War, Mean

Kurt Vonnegut (1987). “Bluebeard: A Novel”, New York : Delacorte Press

My country is in ruins. So I'm a fish in a poisoned fishbowl. I'm mostly just heartsick about this. There should have been hope. This should have been a great country. But we are despised all over the world now. I was hoping to build a country and add to its literature. That's why I served in World War II, and that's why I wrote books.

Country, War, Book

Source: www.penguinrandomhouse.com

The Great Depression was going on, so that the station and the streets teemed with homeless people, just as they do today. The newspapers were full of stories of worker layoffs and farm foreclosures and bank failures, just as they are today. All that has changed, in my opinion, is that, thanks to television, we can hide a Great Depression. We may even be hiding a Third World War.

War, People, May

Kurt Vonnegut (2009). “Bluebeard: A Novel”, p.92, Dial Press

There are plenty of good reasons for fighting...but no good reason to ever hate without reservation, to imagine that God Almighty hates with you, too. Where's evil? It's that large part of every man that wants to hate without limit, that wants to hate with God on its side. It's that part of every man that finds all kinds of ugliness so attractive....it's that part of an imbecile that punishes and vilifies and makes war gladly.

Hate, War, Fighting

During the Vietnam War, which lasted longer than any war we've ever been in - and which we lost - every respectable artist in this country was against the war. It was like a laser beam. We were all aimed in the same direction. The power of this weapon turns out to be that of a custard pie dropped from a stepladder six feet high.

Country, War, Artist

"Vonnegut at 80". Interview with David Hoppe, www.nuvo.net. January 1, 2003.

Unfortunately, that still leaves plenty of Americans who don't read much or think much -- who will still be extremely useful in unjust wars. We are sick about that. We did the best we could.

War, Thinking, Sick

I'm an old guy, and I was protesting during the Vietnam War. We killed fifty Asians for every loyal American. Every artist worth a damn in this country was terribly opposed to that war, finally, when it became evident what a fiasco and meaningless butchery it was.

Country, War, Artist

Interview with David Barsamian, www.sharedhost.progressive.org. June 12, 2003.

Much of the blame is the malarkey that artists have created to glorify war, which as we all know, is nonsense, and a good deal worse than that — romantic pictures of battle, and of the dead and men in uniform and all that. And I did not want to have that story told again.

War, Artist, Men

The Contessa was surely way ahead of her time, too, in believing that men were not only usless and idiotic, but downright dangerous. That idea wouldn't catch on big in her native country until the last three years of the Vietnam War.

Country, War, Believe

Kurt Vonnegut (1998). “Bluebeard”, Dial Press

Make war not on terrorism but on ignorance, on sickness and on environmental degradation.

War, Ignorance, Environmental

What war has always been is a puberty ceremony.

Peace, War, Ceremony

Fathers are always so proud the first time they see their sons in uniform," she said. "I know Big John Karpinski was," I said. He is my neighbor to the north, of course. Big John's son Little John did badly in high school, and the police caught him selling dope. So he joined the Army while the Vietnam War was going on. And the first time he came home in uniform, I never saw Big John so happy, because it looked to him as though Little John was all straightened out and would amount to something. But then Little John came home in a body bag.

Father, War, Home

Kurt Vonnegut (1998). “Bluebeard”, Dial Press

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”

You know — we've had to imagine the war here, and we have imagined that it was being fought by aging men like ourselves. We had forgotten that wars were fought by babies. When I saw those freshly shaved faces, it was a shock. "'My God, my God — ' I said to myself, 'It's the Children's Crusade.

Baby, Children, War

Slaughterhouse-Five ch. 5 (1969)

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”

Perhaps, when we remember wars, we should take off our clothes and paint ourselves blue and go on all fours all day long and grunt like pigs. That would surely be more appropriate than noble oratory and shows of flags and well-oiled guns.

War, Gun, Pigs

"Cat's Cradle". Book by Kurt Vonnegut (Chapter 114), 1963.

I try to keep deep love out of my stories because, once that particular subject comes up, it is almost impossible to talk about anything else. Readers don't want to hear about anything else. They go gaga about love. If a lover in a story wins his true love, that's the end of the tale, even if World War III is about to begin, and the sky is black with flying saucers.

Love, War, Winning

Kurt Vonnegut (1988). “Conversations with Kurt Vonnegut”, p.185, Univ. Press of Mississippi

I asked this heroic pet lover how it felt to have died for a schnauzer named Teddy. Salvador Biagiani was philosophical. He said it sure beat dying for absolutely nothing in the Viet Nam War.

Dog, War, Philosophical

Kurt Vonnegut (2011). “God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian”, p.16, Seven Stories Press

I'm eighty-three and homeless. It was the same when World War II ended. The Army kept me on because I could type, so I was typing other people's discharges and stuff. And my feeling was "Please, I've done everything I was supposed to do. Can I go home now?" That what I feel right now. I've written books. Lots of them. Please, I've done everything I'm supposed to do. Can I go home now? I've wondered where home is. It's when I was in Indianapolis when I was nine years old. Had a dog, a cat, a brother, a sister.

Dog, Brother, War

War is now a form of TV entertainment, and what made the First World War so particularly entertaining were two American inventions, barbed wire and the machine gun.

War, Gun, Two

Kurt Vonnegut (2011). “A Man Without a Country”, p.88, Seven Stories Press

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