God Bless Kurt Vonnegut

McSweeney's Internet Tendency: The Best Jokes Are Dangerous, An Interview with Kurt Vonnegut, Part One

Q: I know you're an avowed Humanist. Yet in a lot of your work you play with the idea of an afterlife or a heaven.

Vonnegut: Well, anything's possible, isn't it? But we don't have enough graduates of Cornell University's Hotel School to take care of us all on the other side.

Q: So in Dr. Kevorkian you were sort of experimenting with the idea of Heaven without actually dying.

Vonnegut: I was just farting around. That's all.

Q: At least two of your titles contain benedictions of sorts — God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian and God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater. Considering your Humanist views, is there irony there, or does it just feel good to say?

Vonnegut: Oh, no. God is a nice idea. [Pause] Saying "God bless you" just helps make the titles a little longer.