Kurt Vonnegut Jr. foi um escritor estadunidense de ascendência germânica.
Concluída a formação em Química, alistou-se no exército e combateu na Segunda Guerra Mundial. Feito prisioneiro, presenciou o bombardeamento de Dresden. Após a Guerra, formou-se em Antropologia.
É autor de vários romances, ensaios e peças de teatro, entre os quais se destacam Player Piano de 1952, Cat’s Cradle de 1963, Slaughterhouse-Five de 1969, Breakfast of Champions de 1973 e Galápagos de 1985. Sua última obra foi Look at the Birdie de 2009, livro póstumo com uma coleção de contos e ensaios.
Vonnegut morreu em 11 de abril de 2007, semanas após uma queda em sua casa em Manhattan que resultou em graves complicações cerebrais.
“Humanista é uma pessoa com grande interesse pelos seres humanos. Meu cachorro é humanista.”
I have found that a humanist is a person who is tremendously interested in human beings. My dog is a humanist.
citado em "The Vonnegut encyclopedia: an authorized compendium" - Página 311, de Marc Leeds - Greenwood Press, 1995, ISBN 0313292302, 9780313292309 - 693 páginas
There in the cocktail lounge, peering out through my leaks at a world of my own invention, I mouthed this word: schizophrenia. The sound and appearance of the word had fascinated me for many years. It sounded and looked to me like a human being sneezing in a blizzard of soapflakes.
Breakfast of champions: or, Goodbye blue Monday! - Página 198, Kurt Vonnegut - Delacorte Press, 1973 - 295 páginas
“Esta provavelmente é a história da minha vida: falta de determinação suficiente.”
that's probably the story of my life: not enough determination.
Breakfast of champions: or, Goodbye blue Monday! - Página 110, Kurt Vonnegut - Delacorte Press, 1973 - 295 páginas
“Roses are red
And ready for plucking
You're sixteen
And ready for high school.”
Breakfast of Champions (1973)
“High school is closer to the core of the American experience than anything else I can think of.”
Introduction to Our Time Is Now: Notes From the High School Underground, John Birmingham, ed. (1970)
Various interviews
"Knowing What's Nice", an essay from In These Times (2003)
Various interviews
Fates Worse than Death (1991)
"Preface"
Between Time and Timbuktu (1972)
Recurring statement throughout the novel on the subject of life, death and mortal existence.
Slaughterhouse-Five (1969)
Epilogue “Reunion with Stony” (pp. 310-311)
The Sirens of Titan (1959)
Fonte: The Sirens of Titan (1959), Chapter 7 “Victory” (p. 180)
“Prologue, and a recurring phrase throughout the book.”
Slapstick (1976)
“What do men want? They want a lot of pals, and they wish that people wouldn’t get so mad at them.”
God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian (1999)
“My theory is that all women have hydrofluoric acid bottled up inside.”
On difficulties with women, as quoted in "Kurt Vonnegut, Writer of Classics of the American Counterculture, Dies at 84" by Dinitia Smith in The New York Times (11 April 2007) http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/11/books/11cnd-vonnegut.html
Various interviews
Fonte: The Sirens of Titan (1959), Chapter 10 “An Age of Miracles” (p. 215; epigram)
“The only difference between Bush and Hitler is that Hitler was elected.”
As quoted in "Kurt Vonnegut's 'Stardust Memory'" http://www.freepress.org/columns/display/7/2006/1326 by Harvey Wasserman in The Free Press (4 March 2006); in actuality, Hitler also wasn't elected by a clear majority vote. Although the Nazi Party was elected to the largest number of seats in the Reichstag, it did not have a majority, and could only form a government through a coalition. Eventually, Hitler was appointed as Chancellor by President Paul von Hindenburg, and used that position as leverage to gain dictatorial powers.
Various interviews
Wampeters, Foma & Granfalloons (1974)
Fonte: Bluebeard (1987), p. 91, referring to George Santayana: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it"
Fonte: The Sirens of Titan (1959), Chapter 5 “Letter From an Unknown Hero” (p. 120)
