'The most nourishing forms of meditation'

 

“Ibelieve that reading and writing are the most nourishing forms of meditationanyone has so far found. By reading the writings of the most interesting mindsin history, we meditate with our own minds and theirs as well. This to me is amiracle.”  -- Kurt Vonnegut  
Born in Indianapolis in 1922, Vonnegut wrote for 50 years, publishing 14 novels, 3 short storycollections, 5 plays, and 5 works of non-fiction. He is most famous for hisdarkly satirical, best-selling novel Slaughterhouse-Five.
Vonnegutalways claimed that it was by reading other great writers that he himselfdeveloped the writing style and ideas that led to his success.  Among the most influential on his writing, hesaid, were George Orwell, Robert Louis Stevenson, Henry David Thoreau and H.G.Wells.
Ajournalist first, Vonnegut often credited journalistic writing as another keyto his style – one that made his writing both straightforward andunderstandable by a wide audience.
“One of the things that I tellbeginning writers is this: If you describe a landscape, or a cityscape, or aseascape, always be sure to put a human figure somewhere in the scene. Why?Because readers are human beings, mostly interested in human beings,” hesaid.  “People are humanists … most ofthem, anyway.”