Slaughterhouse Five Quotes
Quotes tagged as "slaughterhouse-five"
Showing 1-26 of 26
“And I asked myself about the present: how wide it was, how deep it was, how much was mine to keep.”
― Slaughterhouse-Five
― Slaughterhouse-Five
“I felt after I finished Slaughterhouse-Five that I didn’t have to write at all anymore if I didn’t want to. It was the end of some sort of career. I don’t know why, exactly. I suppose that flowers, when they’re through blooming, have some sort of awareness of some purpose having been served. Flowers didn’t ask to be flowers and I didn’t ask to be me. At the end of Slaughterhouse-Five…I had a shutting-off feeling…that I had done what I was supposed to do and everything was OK.”
― Conversations with Kurt Vonnegut
― Conversations with Kurt Vonnegut
“Well, I know," she said. "You'll pretend you were men instead of babies, and you'll be played in the movies by Frank Sinatra and John Wayne or some of those other glamorous, war-loving, dirty old men. And war will look just wonderful, so we'll have a lot more of them. And they'll be fought by babies like the babies upstairs."
So then I understood. It was war that made her so angry. She didn't want her babies or anybody else's babies killed in wars. And she thought wars were partly encouraged by books and movies.
So I held up my right hand and I made her a promise: "Mary," I said, "I don't think this book of mine will ever be finished. I must have written five thousand pages by now, and thrown them all away. If I ever do finish it, though, I give you my word of honor: there won't be a part for Frank Sinatra or John Wayne.
"I tell you what," I said, "I'll call it 'The Children's Crusade.'"
She was my friend after that.”
― Slaughterhouse-Five
So then I understood. It was war that made her so angry. She didn't want her babies or anybody else's babies killed in wars. And she thought wars were partly encouraged by books and movies.
So I held up my right hand and I made her a promise: "Mary," I said, "I don't think this book of mine will ever be finished. I must have written five thousand pages by now, and thrown them all away. If I ever do finish it, though, I give you my word of honor: there won't be a part for Frank Sinatra or John Wayne.
"I tell you what," I said, "I'll call it 'The Children's Crusade.'"
She was my friend after that.”
― Slaughterhouse-Five
“The time would not pass. Somebody was playing with the clocks, and not only the electronic clocks but the wind-up kind too. The second hand on my watch would twitch once, and a year would pass, and then it would twitch again.
There was nothing I could do about it. As an Earthling I had to believe whatever clocks said -and calendars.”
― Slaughterhouse-Five
There was nothing I could do about it. As an Earthling I had to believe whatever clocks said -and calendars.”
― Slaughterhouse-Five
“What good the prophet in the wilderness may do is incremental and personal. It's good for us to hear someone speak the irrational truth. It's good for us when, in spite of all of the sober, pragmatic, and even correct arguments that war is sometimes necessary someone says: war is large-scale murder, us at our worst, the stupidest guy doing the cruelest thing to the weakest being.”
― The Braindead Megaphone
― The Braindead Megaphone
“The nicest veterans in Schenectady, I thought, the kindest and funniest ones, the ones who hated war the most, were the ones who'd really fought.”
― Slaughterhouse-Five
― Slaughterhouse-Five
“I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow. I feel my fate in what I cannot fear. I learn by going where I have to go.”
― Slaughterhouse-Five
― Slaughterhouse-Five
“All time is time. It does not change. It does not lend itself to warnings or explanations. It simply is. Take it moment by moment, and you will find that we are all, as I've said before, bugs in amber.”
― Slaughterhouse-Five
― Slaughterhouse-Five
“Five German soldiers and a police dog on a leash were looking down into the bed of the creek. The soldiers' blue eyes were filled with a bleary civilian curiosity as to why one American would try to murder another one so far from home, and why the victim should laugh.”
― Slaughterhouse-Five
― Slaughterhouse-Five
“I thought scientists were going to find out exactly how everything worked, and then make it work better. I fully expected that by the time I was twenty-one, some scientist, maybe my brother, would have taken a colour photograph of God Almighty — and sold it to Popular Mechanics magazine. Scientific truth was going to make us so happy and comfortable.
What actually happened when I was twenty-one was that we dropped scientific truth on Hiroshima.”
―
What actually happened when I was twenty-one was that we dropped scientific truth on Hiroshima.”
―
“The girls screamed. They covered themselves with their hands and turned their backs and so on, and made themselves utterly beautiful.”
―
―
“What we love in our books are the depths of many marvelous moments seen all at once.”
― Slaughterhouse-Five
― Slaughterhouse-Five
“Did that really happen?" said Maggie White. She was a dull person, but a sensational invitation to make babies. Men looked at her and wanted to fill her up with babies right away. She hadn’t had even one baby yet. She used birth control. "Of course it happened," Trout told her. "If I wrote something that hadn't really happened, and I tried to sell it, I could go to jail. That’s fraud."
Maggie believed him. "I'd never thought about that before."
"Think about it now."
"It’s like advertising. You have to tell the truth in advertising, or you get in trouble."
"Exactly. The same body of law applies."
"Do you think you might put us in a book sometime?"
"I put everything that happens to me in books."
"I guess I better be careful what I say."
"That’s right. And I'm not the only one who's listening. God is listening, too. And on Judgment Day he's going to tell you all the things you said and did. If it turns out they're bad things instead of good things, that’s too bad for you, because you'll burn forever and ever. The burning never stops hurting."
Poor Maggie turned gray. She believed that, too, and was petrified.
Kilgore Trout laughed uproariously. A salmon egg flew out of his mouth and landed in Maggie's cleavage.”
―
Maggie believed him. "I'd never thought about that before."
"Think about it now."
"It’s like advertising. You have to tell the truth in advertising, or you get in trouble."
"Exactly. The same body of law applies."
"Do you think you might put us in a book sometime?"
"I put everything that happens to me in books."
"I guess I better be careful what I say."
"That’s right. And I'm not the only one who's listening. God is listening, too. And on Judgment Day he's going to tell you all the things you said and did. If it turns out they're bad things instead of good things, that’s too bad for you, because you'll burn forever and ever. The burning never stops hurting."
Poor Maggie turned gray. She believed that, too, and was petrified.
Kilgore Trout laughed uproariously. A salmon egg flew out of his mouth and landed in Maggie's cleavage.”
―
“On an average, 324 000 new babies are born into the world every day. During the same day, 10 000 persons, on an average, will have starved to death or died from malnutrition. So it goes. In adition 123 000 persons will die for other reasons. So it goes. This leaves a net gain of about 191 000 each day in the world. The Population Reference Bureau predicts that the world's total population will double to 7,000,000,000 before the year 2000.
"I suppose they will all want diginity" I said
"I suppose" said O'Hare”
―
"I suppose they will all want diginity" I said
"I suppose" said O'Hare”
―
“I asked myself about the present: how wide it was, how deep it was, how much was mine to keep.”
― Slaughterhouse-Five
― Slaughterhouse-Five
“The gaping trunk looked like the mouth of a village idiot who was explaining that he didn't know anything about anything.”
― Slaughterhouse-Five
― Slaughterhouse-Five
“If everybody would leave him alone for just a little while, he thought, he
wouldn't cause anybody any more trouble. He would turn to steam and float up among
the treetops.”
―
wouldn't cause anybody any more trouble. He would turn to steam and float up among
the treetops.”
―
“Billy took off his tri-focals and his coat and his necktie and his shoes, and he closed the venetian blinds and then the drapes, and he lay down on the outside of the coverlet. But sleep would not come. Tears came instead. They seeped.
[...] He closed his eyes, and opened them again. He was still weeping, but he was back in Luxembourg again. He was marching with a lot of other prisoners. It was a winter wind that was bringing tears to his eyes.”
― Slaughterhouse-Five
[...] He closed his eyes, and opened them again. He was still weeping, but he was back in Luxembourg again. He was marching with a lot of other prisoners. It was a winter wind that was bringing tears to his eyes.”
― Slaughterhouse-Five
“The third bullet was for the filthy flamingo, who stopped dead center in the road when the lethal bee buzzed past his ear. Billy stood there politely, giving the marksman another chance. It was his addled understanding of the rules of warfare that the marksman should be given a second chance.”
― Slaughterhouse-Five
― Slaughterhouse-Five
“And then they saw bearded Billy Pilgrim in his blue toga and silver shoes, with his hands in a muff. He looked at least sixty years old. Next to Billy was little Paul Lazzaro with a broken arm. He was fizzing with rabies. Next to Lazzaro was the poor old high school teacher, Edgar Derby, mournfully pregnant with patriotism and middle age and imaginary wisdom.”
― Slaughterhouse-Five
― Slaughterhouse-Five
“The windows of the ward were open. Birds were twittering outside. 'Poo-tee-weet?' One asked him. The sun was high.”
―
―
“Mr. Trout--?'
'Yes?'
'Are--are you Kilgore Trout?'
'Yes. "Trout supposed that Billy had some complaint about the way his newspapers were being delivered. He did not think of himself as a writer for the simple reason that the world had never allowed him to think of himself in this way.
'The--the writer?' said Billy.
'The what?'
Billy was certain that he had made a mistake. 'There's a writer named Kilgore Trout.'
'There is?' Trout looked foolish and dazed.
'You never heard of him?'
Trout shook his head. 'Nobody--nobody ever did.”
― Slaughterhouse-Five
'Yes?'
'Are--are you Kilgore Trout?'
'Yes. "Trout supposed that Billy had some complaint about the way his newspapers were being delivered. He did not think of himself as a writer for the simple reason that the world had never allowed him to think of himself in this way.
'The--the writer?' said Billy.
'The what?'
Billy was certain that he had made a mistake. 'There's a writer named Kilgore Trout.'
'There is?' Trout looked foolish and dazed.
'You never heard of him?'
Trout shook his head. 'Nobody--nobody ever did.”
― Slaughterhouse-Five
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