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Quote by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

Work

While Mortals Sleep: Unpublished Short Fiction

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Author

Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

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“Living is the easiest thing in the world. Your mom pushes, a man in a white coat on the other side of the uterus pulls. Out you pop, and someone cuts your umbilical cord. You start crying. The lights are too bright. Air enters your lungs. Air exits your lungs. Air enters your lungs. Air exits. Air enters. Exits. It's a piece of cake. A walk in the park. You're alive. Living is the easiest thing in the world. Surviving ... that's another story. They attack you with pitchforks, they attack you with batons. They attack you with axes, with diseases, with cars. They come at you with tsunamis, with earthquakes, with a stroke. With a malignant tumor, a benign tumor, malignant tumor, benign tumor, malignant tumor. Let's see you get out of that alive.”

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“And if you've somehow managed to survive this far, now is the time to step things up and try to start caring: about a cat wailing in the yard, a baby wailing on the neighbor's balcony, a homeless guy wailing on the sidewalk across the street. I know, it's not easy. Surviving is intuitive: a bear chases you, you run. But caring? That's for advanced players. Breaking up a fight between two strangers on the street. Giving the salami sandwich you packed for lunch to a hungry-looking guy with holes in his shirt. Remembering that salami is actually thick slices of a cow that didn't ask to die. Understanding that you're part of something bigger, part of a giant, bloodied human wound. That this disease called caring is incurable and always will be.”

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