In 2006, a New York City English teacher named Ms Lockwood asked her students to write to their favorite authors and persuade them to visit the school. Five of those pupils chose novelist Kurt Vonnegut who was the author of 14 novels. He was the only author to reply. Though he never made the trip to their school, Vonnegut responded to the students with the following letter.

    Dear Xavier High School, Billy, Sally, Jonny, Maurer and Kathy,

    I thank you for your friendly letters. You sure know how to cheer up an old man (84) in his sunset years. I don't make public appearances anymore. I'd like to advise you to do the following things: Practice any art—music, singing, dancing, acting, drawing, painting, poetry, fiction, essays—no matter how well or badly, not to get money and fame, but to experience becoming, to find out what's inside you, to make your soul grow.

    Seriously! I mean starting right now, do art and do it for the rest of your lives. Draw a funny or nice picture of Ms Lockwood and give it to her. Dance home after school, and sing in the shower, and on and on. Pretend that you're Count Dracula. Here's an assignment for tonight, and I hope Ms Lockwood will not let you pass the test if you don't do it.

    Write a six-line poem about anything. Make it good as you possibly can. But don't tell anybody what you're doing. Don't show it or recite it to anybody, not even your girlfriend or parents, or Ms Lockwood. OK? Tear it up into pieces and throw them into dustbins. You will find that you have already been gloriously rewarded for your poem. You have experienced becoming, learnt a lot more about what's inside you, and you have made your soul grow.

      God bless you all.

                                                                                                                                                                          Kurt Vonnegut