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
Thanksgiving. It proved you had survived another year with its wars, inflation, unemployment, smog, presidents. It was a grand neurotic gathering of clans: loud drunks, grandmothers, sisters, aunts, screaming children, would-be suicides. And don't forget indigestion. I wasn't different from anyone else: There sat the 18-pound bird on my sink, dead, plucked, totally disemboweled. Iris would roast it for me.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Thanksgiving is a complex time that reflects survival amidst chaos and family dynamics.
In this quote, Charles Bukowski encapsulates the essence of Thanksgiving as not just a celebration, but a reflection of enduring life's challenges—wars, inflation, and personal struggles—while surrounded by the chaotic yet familiar gatherings of family. He depicts a vivid image of the holiday, filled with both humor and melancholy, portraying it as a neurotic mix of people and experiences that ultimately emphasizes the complexities of family relationships during such a time.
Themes
ThanksgivingFamilyChaosSurvivalGathering
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used during a Thanksgiving dinner to highlight the humorous yet true nature of family gatherings.
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All quotes →when I am feeling low all i have to do is watch my cats and my courage returns
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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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