I can never drive my car over a bridge without thinking of suicide. I can never look at a lake or an ocean without thinking of suicide.
Charles BukowskiRead
I am this fiery snail crawling home.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote expresses the struggle of navigating life's journey, combining determination with the slow, steady progress of a snail.
In this quote, Charles Bukowski uses the imagery of a 'fiery snail' to convey the duality of human experience—feeling both passionate and slow-moving in the pursuit of one's goals. It highlights the idea that, despite the inherent challenges and the sometimes sluggish pace of life, one continues to strive for a sense of belonging or 'home,' embodying both resilience and the struggle against adversity.
Themes
LifeJourneyStruggleDeterminationHome
In practice
Example use cases
During a graduation speech to inspire students about their futures.
More from Charles Bukowski
All quotes →when I am feeling low all i have to do is watch my cats and my courage returns
Charles BukowskiRead
The masses are always wrong...Wisdom is doing everything the crowd does not do. All you do is reverse the totality of their learning and you have the heaven they're looking for.
Charles BukowskiRead
I'm going to open another vottle. not a vottle, but a bottle. you open it and I'll drink it. and you try to write as much as I did without falling off of your chair.
Charles BukowskiRead
To experience real agony is something hard to write about, impossible to understand while it grips you; you're frightened out of your wits, can’t sit still, move, or even go decently insane.
Charles BukowskiRead
I lapsed into my pathetic cut-off period. Often with humans, both good and bad, my senses simply shut off, they get tired, I give up. I am polite. I nod. I pretend to understand because I don’t want anybody to be hurt. That is the one weakness that has lead me into the most trouble. Trying to be kind to others I often get my soul shredded into a kind of spiritual pasta. No matter. My brain shuts off. I listen. I respond. And they are too dumb to know that I am not there.
Charles BukowskiRead
Similar quotes
History has to be rewritten because history is the selection of those threads of causes or antecedents that we are interested in.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.Read
Those who weep for the happy periods which they encounter in history acknowledge what they want; not the alleviation but the silencing of misery.
Albert CamusRead
I do not like Moscow life. You live here not as you want to live, but as old women want you to.
Alexander PushkinRead
Thousands of years ago, weren't we capable of building enormous structures like the pyramids? Weren't we capable of worshiping gods, weaving, making fire, finding lovers and wives, sending written messages? Of course we were. But although we've succeeded in replacing slaves with wage slaves, all the advances we've made have been in the field of science. Human beings are still asking the same questions as their ancestors. In short, they haven't evolved at all.
Paulo CoelhoRead
When I was fifteen, all I wanted was to go off to some other world, a place beyond anybody’s reach. A place beyond the flow of time.” - But there’s no place like that in this world. - Exactly. Which is why I’m living here, in this world where things are continually damaged, where the heart is fickle, where time flows past without a break.
Haruki MurakamiRead
If individuality has no play, society does not advance; if individuality breaks out of all bounds, society perishes.
Thomas HuxleyRead