All male writers, incidentally, no matter how broke or otherwise objectionable, have pretty wives. Somebody should look into this.

America is the wealthiest nation on Earth, but its people are mainly poor, and poor Americans are urged to hate themselves.

People are lying all the time as to what a murderous nation we are. So let it be known. We're behaving abominably. It's like having a relative go absolutely nuts. Somebody has to say, "I think Uncle Charlie's off his rocker." We are behaving in a bizarre manner.

One [television] program was an interminable exploration of the question: can a woman with a low I.Q. be happily married to a man with a high one? The answer seemed to be yes and no.

The gun made a ripping sound like the opening of a zipper on the fly of God Almighty.

I'm odd, I know,' he said. 'It's fear of myself that's made me odd.

On Tralfamadore, says Billy Pilgrim, there isn't much interest in Jesus Christ. The Earthling figure who is most engaging to the Tralfamadorian mind, he says, is Charles Darwin - who taught that those who die are meant to die, that corpses are improvements. So it goes.