Slaughterhouse-Five Quotes
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Source: Slaughterhouse-Five
Author: Kurt Vonnegut
"But she did look back, and I love her for that, because it was so human. So she was turned to a pillar of salt. So it goes. People aren’t supposed to look back. I’m certainly not going to do it anymore."
And Lot's wife, of course, was told not to look back where all those people and their homes had been. But she did look back, and I love her for that, because it was so human.
She was turned to a pillar of salt. So it goes.
People aren't supposed to look back. I'm certainly not going to do it anymore.
Context
This quote appears in the first chapter of Slaughterhouse-Five, where Vonnegut is introducing his story of Billy Pilgrim.
While waiting in a motel room after missing a plane that will take him back to Dresden, he begins reading a Gideon's Bible "for tales of great destruction" and finds the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. He identifies with Lot's wife and uses her story to introduce his own.
Where you've heard it
This one's straight from the Bible. Ish.
Pretentious Factor
If you were to drop this quote at a dinner party, would you get an in-unison "awww" or would everyone roll their eyes and never invite you back? Here it is, on a scale of 1-10.
You should only use this quote if you're writing a book of literary criticism about war narratives and memoirs. That's it. It has so little applicability to anything else that there's no reason to say it...except to quote Vonnegut and sound smart.