But when I roamed New York City, knowing so much and capable of speaking so nicely, and yet so lonely, and often hungry and cold, I learned the joke at the core of American self-improvement: knowledge was so much junk to be processed one way or another at great universities. The real treasure the great universities offered was a lifelong membership in a respected artificial extended family.

" When pressed further Vonnegut also said that "They [suicide bombers] are dying for their own self-respect. The couple separated in 1970; that same year Vonnegut began living with the woman who would later become his second wife photographer Jill Krementz although he did not divorce Cox until 1979. Breakfast of Champions became one of his best-selling novels.

: /ˈvɒnɨɡət/; November 11 1922 – April 11 2007) was an American writer. Kurt Vonnegut Jr.