I took comfort, as a kid, in knowing that things had always been as awful and as wonderful as they were now, that the world was always on the edge of total destruction.
Michael ChabonRead
All male friendships are essentially quixotic: they last only so long as each man is willing to polish the shaving-bowl helmet, climb on his donkey, and ride off after the other in pursuit of illusive glory and questionable adventure.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Male friendships are often based on shared adventures and ideals, but are fleeting and can become superficial.
This quote by Michael Chabon highlights the nature of male friendships as often being romanticized and idealized, akin to the knights of old chasing after glory and adventure. The imagery of polishing a helmet and riding a donkey suggests that these friendships require effort and a willingness to pursue shared, sometimes unrealistic, goals, indicating that such relationships are often transient and dependent on mutual enthusiasm for adventure.
Themes
FriendshipMale BondsAdventureGloryTransience
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about the importance of male camaraderie at a men's retreat.
More from Michael Chabon
All quotes →A story begins with this nebulous feeling that’s hard to get a hold of and you’re testing your feelings and assumptions, testing what you believe. They end up turning into keepsakes and mementos –like amber in which a memory gets trapped.
Michael ChabonRead
I smoked and looked down at the bottom of Pittsburgh for a little while, watching the kids playing tiny baseball, the distant figures of dogs snatching at a little passing car, a miniature housewife on her back porch shaking out a snippet of red rug, and I made a sudden, frightened vow never to become that small, and to devote myself to getting bigger and bigger and bigger.
Michael ChabonRead
It's always thrilling to encounter the sweep of time in a work of fiction in a way that feels authentic and real.
Michael ChabonRead
[My dad] didn't do much apart from the traditional winning of bread. He didn't take me to get my hair cut or my teeth cleaned; he didn't make the appointments. He didn't shop for my clothes. He didn't make my breakfast, lunch, or dinner. My mom did all of those things, and nobody ever told her when she did them that it made her a good mother.
Michael ChabonRead
You need three things to become a successful novelist: talent, luck and discipline. Discipline is the one element of those three things that you can control, and so that is the one that you have to focus on controlling, and you just have to hope and trust in the other two.
Michael ChabonRead
Similar quotes
There's a communion of more than our bodies when bread is broken and wine drunk.
M. F. K. FisherRead
We'll be there, Harry," said Ron "What?" "At your Aunt and Uncle's house," said Ron, "And then we'll go with you wherever you're going." "No-" said Harry quickly; he hadn't counted on this, he had meant them to understand that he was undertaking the most dangerous journey alone. "You said it once before," said Hermione quickly, "that there was time to turn back if we wanted to. We've had time, haven't we? We're with you whatever happens.
J. K. RowlingRead
Yes, we must ever be friends; and of all who offer you friendship Let me be ever the first, the truest, the nearest and dearest.
Henry Wadsworth LongfellowRead
Everything is connected. Surfing is a solitary sport. But I can tell you that some of the most amazing things I've done surfing have come from being a part of a tribe.
Laird HamiltonRead
Books like friends, should be few and well-chosen.
Samuel JohnsonRead
A friendship founded on business is better than a business founded on friendship.
John D. RockefellerRead