On Wednesday, the world lost a great writer. Kurt Vonnegut is best known for his anti-war novel, Slaughterhouse-Five. It is a fictional book based on the fire-bombing of Dresden, a series of air-strikes that Vonnegut himself witnessed as an American soldier in Germany during World War II. The novel's main character, Billy Pilgrim, lives through the horrors of those few days over and over again, as he remains unstuck in time.

On hearing of the recent author's passing, Joel Bleifuss, editor of In These Times said that Vonnegut was "a man who combined a wicked sense of humor and sort of steady moral compass, who was always sort of looking at the big picture of the things that were most important."

I have read about half of Vonnegut's extensive and impressive collection of science fiction novels. It's nice to know that, even though the writer may be gone, we can always visit with his alter-ego, Kilgore Trout.

A few quotes from the late Kurt Vonnegut:

Maturity is a bitter disappointment for which no remedy exists, unless laughter can be said to remedy anything. - KV

A purpose of human life, no matter who is controlling it, is to love whoever is around to be loved. - KV

I say in speeches that a plausible mission of artists is to make people appreciate being alive at least a little bit. I am then asked if I know of any artists who pulled that off. I reply, "The Beatles did." - KV

All time is all time. It does not change. It does not lend itself to warnings or explanations. It simply is. Take it moment by moment, and you will find that we are all, as I've said before, bugs in amber. - Slaughterhouse-Five

I want to stay as close to the edge as I can without going over.  Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can't see from the center... Big, undreamed-of things -- the people on the edge see them first. - Player Piano

New knowledge is the most valuable commodity on earth. The more truth we have to work with, the richer we become. - Breakfast of Champions

...and so it goes.