I didn’t have grandparents growing up, until I discovered Kurt Vonnegut  in my teens. From that point forward I always thought of Mr. Vonnegut as my genius, curmudgeonly, trippy, endlessly interesting and very distant grandfather.

November 11 would have been his 92nd birthday.

In honor of one of the best American writers of all time, I thought I would share some of my favorite Kurt Vonnegut quotes. So it goes.

“Here we are, trapped in the amber of the moment. There is no why.”

“There is no beginning, no middle, no end, no suspense, no moral, no causes, no effects. What we love in our books are the depths of many marvelous moments seen all at one time.”

“True terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high school class is running the country.”

“Hello, babies. Welcome to Earth. It’s hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It’s round and wet and crowded. At the outside, babies, you’ve got about a hundred years here. There’s only one rule that I know of, babies—God damn it, you’ve got to be kind.” 

“We do, doodily do, doodily do, doodily do
what we must, muddily must, muddily must, muddily must,
muddily do, muddily do, muddily do, muddily do,
until we bust, bodily bust, bodily bust, bodily bust.”