"God bless you, Kurt Vonnegut"

Man, I just found out Kurt Vonnegut is dead! This is very sad news, as he is certainly one of my most favourite authors of all time.

Exerpts from an interview with McSweeney's:









Q: Do you think several hundred years from now, if we should have a planet then, that there could be, between the Shakespeare and the Beethoven, a couple Kurt Vonnegut books?

VONNEGUT: I can only think of an experience I had back when I was working PR at General Electric. I worked with a man who had been married for some time and was about to become a father. GE had just begun offering reduced rates on insurance plans—life insurance, health insurance. I was looking everything over, wondering what I might get, and I asked him, "Aren't you going to get some life insurance?" And he looked at me and said, "Why should I? I'll be dead. What do I care what happens to them after I'm gone?" (Laughs.) Is that scientific enough?

Q: So is this really the final book? Timequake was supposed to be your farewell, and then God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian came along.

VONNEGUT: I don't fucking know. I keep thinking I'll die. Why do you think I smoke so much?

Q: How many packs are you up to a day?

VONNEGUT: Never mind. It's none of your fucking business. Fuck off—you know what I'm saying?