Kurt Vonnegut Quotes

We are not concerned with the very poor. They are unthinkable, and only to be approached by the statistician or the poet.

I'm not from the working class. I'm from the criminal class.

The poor generally follow behavior patterns established by the rich.

I never knew the lower classes had such white skins.

He isn’t like us Low. You know that right.” I knew what Cage was saying. Marcus was out of my league. He didn’t want me thinking there could ever be anything between me and his roommate. I was low class. Marcus was a rich kid. “I’m not stupid Cage.

When I look out [the window] at the big houses on either side of the road, it's obvious we've entered the rich side of town. Poor people don't post signs like NO TRESPASSING, PRIVATE DRIVE, PRIVATE PROPERTY, MONITORED BY CAMERA SURVEILLANCE. I should know because I've been poor my entire life, and the only person I know who ever posted a sign like these is my friend...and he actually stole the sign off a rich guy's yard.

There is no concept more generally cherished by publishers than that of the Undeserving Poor.

Texas has arguably the most extreme separation between the well off and everyday people in the United States.

When I was a child, I didn't fly - we couldn't afford to fly. Flying was for rich people.

The middle class is doing fine in fiction. But it's not what gets me going. I love the working class, and everyone from it I've met, and think they're incredibly witty, inventive - there's a lot of poetry there.

If there's an enduring theme in my work, it's probably the effects of class on American life.

It seems that the fiction writer has a revolting attachment to the poor, for even when he writes about the rich, he is more concerned with what they lack than with what they have.

Do not waste your time on Social Questions. What is the matter with the poor is Poverty; what is the matter with the rich is Uselessness.

About the only difference between the poor and the rich, is this, the poor suffer misery, while the rich have to enjoy it.

Coming from where I came from, it was unimaginable to ever be wealthy. That was just too far out of my reach.

We are undemocratic, then, in our religion, as is proved by our efforts to “raise” the poor.

I'm tired of people on trust funds telling people on food stamps how to live.

I did not grow up with a silver spoon in my mouth.

With upper- and middle-class lawns, there's more hidden, whereas with working-class or poor lawns, there's more out to see. It just sits right out there. Very honest. Like the people.

I was the kind of poor where I knew right away I had less than everyone around me. Our environment, our physical space reflected our income.

I remember arguing with kids on the street who were talking about Santa Claus. I said don't be so daft - Santa Claus doesn't come down our chimney. He's an economic Santa Claus; he goes down chimneys where they've got money.

I've always felt like a lot of people's misconceptions of me have to do with how I grew up. I grew up poor, and I grew up rich.

'High Cotton' is more conscious of class than 'Black Deutschland.'

Eat with the rich, but go to the play with the poor, who are capable of joy.

There were but two families in the world, Have-much and Have-little.