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Our lives carry us along in ways we cannot control, and almost nothing stays with us. It dies when we do, and death is something that happens to us every day.
Paul Auster
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Interpretation

What this quote means

Life is transient and beyond our control, culminating in death.

Paul Auster's quote reflects the uncontrollable nature of life and its impermanence. It suggests that as we journey through life, we often lack control over our experiences, which are fleeting and ultimately culminate in death—the finality that shapes our existence. By asserting that death is something that occurs daily, he emphasizes the importance of recognizing life's transient beauty and the inevitability of change.

Themes

LifeDeathImpermanenceControlChange

In practice

Example use cases

During a eulogy, to reflect on the transient nature of life.

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Those of us who can remember our childhoods will recall how ardently we relished the moment of the bedtime story, when our mother or father would sit down beside us in the semi-dark and read from a book of fairy tales.
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Bodies count, of course - they count more than we're willing to admit - but we don't fall in love with bodies, we fall in love with each other. We all know that, but the moment we go beyond a catalogue of surface qualities and appearances, words begin to fail us, to crumble apart in mystical confusions and cloudy, unsubstantial metaphors.
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At that point, Noriko finally breaks down and begins to cry sobbing into her hands as the floodgates open - this young woman who has suffered in silence for so long, this good woman who refuse to believe she's good, for only the good doubt their own goodness, which is what makes them good in the first place. The bad know they are good, but the good know nothing. They spend their lives forgiving others, but they can't forgive themselves.
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