quote · Legacy record
I think I succeeded as a writer because I did not come out of an English department. I used to write in the chemistry department. And I wrote some good stuff. If I had been in the English department, the prof would have looked at my short stories, congratulated me on my talent, and then showed me how Joyce or Hemingway handled the same elements of the short story. The prof would have placed me in competition with the greatest writers of all time, and that would have ended my writing career.
I think I succeeded as a writer because I did not come out of an English department. I used to write in the chemistry department. And I wrote some good stuff. If I had been in the English department, the prof would have looked at my short stories, congratulated me on my talent, and then showed me how Joyce or Hemingway handled the same elements of the short story. The prof would have placed me in competition with the greatest writers of all time, and that would have ended my writing career.
Approximate author period: c. 1950 AD · modern
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- Author or tradition
- Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Attribution: attributed - Country attributed
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- Approximate author period: c. 1950 AD · modern
Approximate author-period evidence for Kurt Vonnegut: documented activity in 1950. Wikidata Q49074, inspected 2026-10-08. Not a quotation composition date or independent verification of attribution. Source: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q49074 (accessed 2026-10-08).
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