Frasi di Kurt Vonnegut
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Kurt Vonnegut Jr. è stato uno scrittore e accademico statunitense.

Dopo le prime opere di genere fantascientifico, la sua produzione letteraria si è andata caratterizzando per un'originale mescolanza di elementi fantastici, satira politica, sociale e di costume, humor nero ed espressione di valori umanisti. Wikipedia  

✵ 11. Novembre 1922 – 11. Aprile 2007  •  Altri nomi Vonegut, Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Kurt Vonnegut photo
Kurt Vonnegut: 347 citazioni26 Mi piace

Kurt Vonnegut frasi celebri

“Per favore, un po' meno d'amore e un po' più di dignità.”

Kurt Vonnegut

da Comica finale

Frasi sul viaggio di Kurt Vonnegut

“Vista a rovescio da Billy, la storia era questa: gli aerei americani, pieni di fori e di feriti e di cadaveri decollavano all'indietro da un campo di aviazione in Inghilterra. Quando furono sopra la Francia, alcuni caccia tedeschi li raggiunsero, sempre volando all'indietro, e succhiarono proiettili e schegge da alcuni degli aerei e degli aviatori. Fecero lo stesso con alcuni bombardieri americani distrutti, che erano a terra e poi decollarono all'indietro, per unirsi alla formazione. Lo stormo, volando all'indietro, sorvolò una città tedesca in fiamme. I bombardieri aprirono i portelli del vano bombe, esercitarono un miracoloso magnetismo che ridusse gli incendi e li raccolse in recipienti cilindrici di acciaio, e sollevarono questi recipienti fino a farli sparire nel ventre degli aerei. I contenitori furono sistemati ordinatamente su alcune rastrelliere. Anche i tedeschi, là sotto, avevano degli strumenti portentosi, costituiti da lunghi tubi di acciaio. Li usavano per succhiare altri frammenti dagli aviatori e dagli aerei. Ma c'erano ancora degli americani feriti, e qualche bombardiere era gravemente danneggiato. Sopra la Francia, però, i caccia tedeschi tornarono ad alzarsi e rimisero tutti e tutto a nuovo. Quando i bombardieri tornarono alla base, i cilindri di acciaio furono tolti dalle rastrelliere e rimandati negli Stati Uniti, dove c'erano degli stabilimenti impegnati giorno e notte a smantellarli, e separarne il pericoloso contenuto e a riportarlo allo stato di minerale. Cosa commovente, erano soprattutto le donne a fare questo lavoro. I minerali venivano poi spediti a specialisti in zone remote. Là dovevano rimetterli nel terreno e nasconderli per bene in modo che non potessero più fare male a nessuno.”

Kurt Vonnegut libro Mattatoio n. 5

Mattatoio n. 5

Frasi sulla vita di Kurt Vonnegut

Kurt Vonnegut Frasi e Citazioni

“Niente è vero, in questo libro.”

Kurt Vonnegut libro Ghiaccio-nove

Ghiaccio-nove

“Troppo lavoro e niente svago […] rende tonti.”

Kurt Vonnegut

da Un pezzo da galera, p. 97

“Da molto tempo si è insegnato agli americani a odiare tutti coloro che non vogliono o non possono lavorare, e addirittura a odiarsi, per questo.”

Kurt Vonnegut libro Dio la benedica, Mr. Rosewater

Dio la benedica, Mr Rosewater
Origine: Da Perle ai porci ovvero Dio la benedica, Mr. Rosewater, traduzione di Vincenzo Mantovani, Einaudi.

Kurt Vonnegut: Frasi in inglese

“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.”

Kurt Vonnegut libro A Man Without a Country

A Man Without a Country (2005)
Contesto: If you want to really 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.

“Labor history was pornography of a sort in those days, and even more so in these days.”

Kurt Vonnegut libro Jailbird

Origine: Jailbird (1979), p. 12 (prologue)
Contesto: Labor history was pornography of a sort in those days, and even more so in these days. In public schools and in the homes of nice people it was and remains pretty much taboo to tell tales of labor's sufferings and derring-do.

“Human beings are chimpanzees who get crazy drunk on power.”

Kurt Vonnegut

Cold Turkey (2004)
Contesto: Human beings are chimpanzees who get crazy drunk on power. By saying that our leaders are power-drunk chimpanzees, am I in danger of wrecking the morale of our soldiers fighting and dying in the Middle East? Their morale, like so many bodies, is already shot to pieces. They are being treated, as I never was, like toys a rich kid got for Christmas.

“I can't think in terms of boundaries. Those imaginary lines are as unreal to me as elves and pixies. I can't believe that they mark the end or the beginning of anything of real concern to the human soul. Virtues and vices, pleasures and pains cross boundaries at will.”

Kurt Vonnegut libro Mother Night

Mother Night (1961)
Contesto: "You hate America, don't you?" she said.
"That would be as silly as loving it," I said. "It's impossible for me to get emotional about it, because real estate doesn't interest me. It's no doubt a great flaw in my personality, but I can't think in terms of boundaries. Those imaginary lines are as unreal to me as elves and pixies. I can't believe that they mark the end or the beginning of anything of real concern to the human soul. Virtues and vices, pleasures and pains cross boundaries at will."

“When the excrement hit the air conditioner”

Kurt Vonnegut libro Hocus Pocus

Recurring phrase throughout many chapters
Hocus Pocus (1990)

“I was on par with the Creator of the Universe there in the dark in the cocktail lounge. I shrunk the Universe to a ball exactly one light-year in diameter.”

Kurt Vonnegut libro Breakfast of Champions

Breakfast of Champions (1973)
Contesto: I was on par with the Creator of the Universe there in the dark in the cocktail lounge. I shrunk the Universe to a ball exactly one light-year in diameter. I had it explode. I had it disperse itself again.
Ask me a question, any question. How old is the Universe? It is one half-second old, but the half-second has lasted one quintillion years so far. Who created it? Nobody created it. It has always been here.
What is time? It is a serpent which eats its tail, like this:
This is the snake which uncoiled itself long enough to offer Eve the apple, which looked like this:
What was the apple which Eve and Adam ate? It was the Creator of the Universe.
And so on.
Symbols can be so beautiful, sometimes.

“Even crazier than golf, though, is modern American politics, where, thanks to TV and for the convenience of TV, you can only be one of two kinds of human beings, either a liberal or a conservative.”

Kurt Vonnegut

Cold Turkey (2004)
Contesto: I have to say this in defense of humankind: No matter in what era in history, including the Garden of Eden, everybody just got there. And, except for the Garden of Eden, there were already all these crazy games going on, which could make you act crazy, even if you weren’t crazy to begin with. Some of the games that were already going on when you got here were love and hate, liberalism and conservatism, automobiles and credit cards, golf and girls’ basketball.
Even crazier than golf, though, is modern American politics, where, thanks to TV and for the convenience of TV, you can only be one of two kinds of human beings, either a liberal or a conservative.

“Mere opinions, in fact, were as likely to govern people's actions as hard evidence, and were subject to sudden reversals as hard evidence could never be.”

Kurt Vonnegut libro Galápagos

Galápagos (1985)
Contesto: Mere opinions, in fact, were as likely to govern people's actions as hard evidence, and were subject to sudden reversals as hard evidence could never be. So the Galapagos Islands could be hell in one moment and heaven in the next, and Julius Caesar could be a statesman in one moment and a butcher in the next, and Ecuadorian paper money could be traded for food, shelter, and clothing in one moment and line the bottom of a birdcage in the next, and the universe could be created by God Almighty in one moment and by a big explosion in the next — and on and on.

“Things don't stay the way they are," said Finnerty. "It's too entertaining to try to change them.”

Kurt Vonnegut libro Player Piano

Origine: Player Piano (1952), Chapter 34 (p. 313)

“It was a marvelous engine for doing violence to the spirit of thousands of laws without actually running afoul of so much as a city ordinance.”

Kurt Vonnegut libro The Sirens of Titan

Origine: The Sirens of Titan (1959), Chapter 3 “United Hotcake Preferred” (p. 78)

“If you actually are an educated, thinking person, you will not be welcome in Washington DC.”

Kurt Vonnegut libro A Man Without a Country

A Man Without a Country (2005)

“And a step backward, after making a wrong turn, is a step in the right direction.”

Kurt Vonnegut libro Player Piano

Origine: Player Piano (1952), Chapter 32 (p. 295)

“If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:
THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC”

Kurt Vonnegut

As quoted in "Vonnegut's Blues For America" Sunday Herald (7 January 2006)
Various interviews

“George W. Bush has gathered around him upper-crust C-students who know no history or geography.”

Kurt Vonnegut libro A Man Without a Country

A Man Without a Country (2005)

“Humor is a way of holding off how awful life can be.”

Kurt Vonnegut libro A Man Without a Country

A Man Without a Country (2005)

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