vonnegut v2
Vonnegut is dead. I scoured my shelves for a copy of Palm Sunday to quote some gems about writing well, but I could not find it! … Must have lent it to someone? But here is the passage about writing an anti-war book:
I said [I was writing a book about Dresden] to Harrison Starr, the movie-maker, one time, and he raised his eyebrows and inquired, “Is it an anti-war book?”
“Yes,” I said. “I guess.”
“You know what I say to people when I hear they’re writing anti-war books?”
“No. What do you say, Harrison Starr?”
“I say, ‘Why don’t you write an anti-glacier book instead?”
What he meant, of course, was that there would always be wars, that they were as easy to stop as glaciers. I believe that, too.
Here is a wonderful interview with Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., aged 82, on the great Australia Radio National show, Late Night Live, with Phillip Adams.