Player Piano

“Democracy owed its life to know-how.”

This quote presents the central point of view of those who are proponents of the machines, or those who have benefitted the most from them. The United States, they claim, was built on the back of the machine; therefore,how could machines be a bad thing? 

“Please, this average man, there is no equivalent in our language, I’m afraid.”

The interpreter explains this to Halyard. Throughout the journey of the Shah, he has a difficult time resolving the differences in how things are named. For the Shah, what the U.S. calls the average citizen, they call a slave. 

“Makes you feel kind of creepy, don’t it, Doctor, watching them keys go up and down? You can almost see a ghost sitting there playing his heart out.”

Rudy Hertz says this to Paul. This is perhaps the most important quote in the novel, as it contains the metaphorical depth of the whole premise. The world runs itself in Vonnegut’s book;the unseen hands are those that have built and maintained the machines.