Kurt Vonnegut

“The trouble with the world was,” she continued hesitatingly, “that people were still superstitious instead of scientific. He said if everybody would study science more, there wouldn’t be all the trouble there was.”
“He said science was going to discover the basic secret of life someday,” the bartender put in. He scratched his head and frowned. “Didn’t I read in the paper the other day where they’d finally found out what it was?”
“I missed that,” I murmured.
“I saw that,” said Sandra. “About two days ago.”
“That’s right,” said the bartender.
“What is the secret of life?” I asked.
“I forget,” said Sandra.
“Protein,” the bartender declared. “They found out something about protein.”
“Yeah,” said Sandra, “that’s it.”

ure research men work on what fascinates them, not on what fascinates other people

“Peculiar travel suggestions are dancing lessons from God.”

Sometimes I think that’s the trouble with the world: too many people in high places who are stone-cold dead

It’s practically like a trip to Europe, there are so many things to see,

“Do you find people to be about the same at heart, wherever you go?”
He looked at his wife, making sure she had heard the question, then turned back to me. “About the same, wherever you go,” he agreed.

I was very upset about how Americans couldn’t imagine what it was like to be something else, to be something else and proud of it.

Newt did not tell me who his girl friend was. But about two weeks after he wrote to me everybody in the country knew that her name was Zinka — plain Zinka. Apparently she didn’t have a last name.

Zinka was a Ukrainian midget, a dancer with the Borzoi Dance Company. As it happened, Newt saw a performance by that company in Indianapolis, before he went to Cornell. And then the company danced at Cornell. When the Cornell performance was over, little Newt was outside the stage door with a dozen long-stemmed American Beauty roses.

Ladies and Gentlemen. I stand before you now because I never stopped dawdling like an eight-year-old on a spring morning on his way to school. Anything can make me stop and look and wonder, and sometimes learn. I am a very happy man. Thank you.’

should I bother with made-up games when there are so many real ones going on?’