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
you've got to burn straight up and down and then maybe sidewise for a while and have your guts scrambled by a bully and the demonic ladies, you've got to run along the edge of madness teetering, you've got to starve like a winter alleycat, you've go to live with the imbecility of at least a dozen cities, then maybe maybe maybe you might know where you are for a tiny blinking moment.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Life is filled with struggles and chaos, and understanding it takes enduring hardship and madness.
In this quote, Charles Bukowski uses vivid imagery to convey the tumultuous nature of life. He suggests that one must endure various hardships and navigate through challenges—symbolized by madness and struggle—to gain even a fleeting moment of clarity and understanding about their existence. The reference to ‘burning straight up and down’ and ‘starving like a winter alleycat’ illustrates the extremes one faces in life's journey, portraying a raw and unfiltered perspective on the human experience.
Themes
LifeStruggleMadnessClarityExperience
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech about overcoming adversity.
More from Charles Bukowski
All quotes →when I am feeling low all i have to do is watch my cats and my courage returns
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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