I say in speeches that a plausible mission of artists is to make people appreciate being alive at least a little bit. I am then asked if I know of any artists who pulled that off. I reply, 'The Beatles did.

Vonnegut frames art less as moral instruction or propaganda than as a practical, humane service: helping people feel that life is worth inhabiting. The line also shows his characteristic blend of modesty and conviction—he offers a “plausible” mission rather than a grand theory, then supplies a concrete example. By naming The Beatles, he points to popular art’s capacity to deliver genuine consolation and joy at mass scale, not only “high” culture’s. Implicitly, he suggests that the measure of artistic success can be experiential and communal—did the work enlarge gratitude, aliveness, or wonder, even briefly?