Kurt Vonnegut Offers Advice to Young Writers

In a 2002 lecture series called "How to Get a Job Like Mine" at Albion College, from which Vonnegut received an honorary degree, the legendary author offered these words of wisdom: "Don't use semicolons. They stand for absolutely nothing. They are transvestite hermaphrodites. They are just a way of showing off. To show that you have been to college." Also, "If you want to really hurt your parents, and you don't have the nerve to be a homosexual, the least you can do is go into the arts." (Click through to watch parts two through five.)

[Kottke]


From New York Magazine published on Aug 6, 2010