QuoteProject
The Difference Between Art and Life is that Art is More Bearable
Charles Bukowski
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

Art allows us to endure life's challenges by providing a unique lens through which to experience and express reality.

This quote suggests that while life can be harsh and difficult to endure, art serves as a means to navigate and soften these experiences. Bukowski implies that art encapsulates the complexity of existence, making it more manageable and bearable, as it allows individuals to explore, understand, and ultimately cope with the various facets of life through creativity and expression.

Themes

ArtLifeBearableExpressionCreativity

In practice

Example use cases

In a discussion about coping mechanisms, one might use this quote to highlight the therapeutic nature of art.

More from Charles Bukowski

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
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

If it were not for the intellectual snobs who pay - in solid cash - the arts would perish with their starving practitioners. Let us thank heaven for hypocrisy.
Aldous HuxleyRead
Most writers - poets in especial - prefer having it understood that they compose by a species of fine frenzy - an ecstatic intuition - and would positively shudder at letting the public take a peep behind the scenes.
Edgar Allan PoeRead
The main thing is to be moved, to love, to hope, to tremble, to live. Be a man before being an artist!
Auguste RodinRead
I've always believed in writing without a collaborator, because where two people are writing the same book, each believes he gets all the worry and only half the royalties.
Agatha ChristieRead
Music and rhythm find their way into the secret places of the soul
PlatoRead
Painting doesn't freeze time. It circulates and recycles time like a wheel that turns. Those who were first might well be last. Painting is a very slow art. It doesn't travel with the speed of light. That's why dead painters shine so bright.
Marlene DumasRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.