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
Disneyland remains the central attraction of Southern California, but the graveyard remains our reality.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote contrasts the allure of Disneyland with the harsh truths of life.
Charles Bukowski's quote highlights the dichotomy between the idealized, joyful experience of Disneyland, which symbolizes escapism and entertainment, and the somber reality of life, represented by the graveyard. It underscores how, despite the attractions and fantasies we pursue, we must confront the inevitable truths and struggles that life presents, reminding us of the transient nature of happiness and the permanence of death.
Themes
DisneylandRealityLifeDeathEscapismTruth
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about the balance between dreams and reality, one might say, 'As Bukowski noted, Disneyland remains the central attraction, but the graveyard remains our reality.'
More from Charles Bukowski
All quotes βwhen 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, canβt 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 donβt 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
For I do not exist: there exist but the thousands of mirrors that reflect me. With every acquaintance I make, the population of phantoms resembling me increases. Somewhere they live, somewhere they multiply. I alone do not exist.
Vladimir NabokovRead
The only time you should look in your neighbor's bowl is to make sure that they have enough. You don't look in your neighbor's bowl to see if you have as much as them.
Louis C. K.Read
Religion is probably, after sex, the second oldest resource which human beings have available to them for blowing their minds.
Susan SontagRead
Are these things good for any other reason except that they end in pleasure, and get rid of and avert pain? Are you looking to any other standard but pleasure and pain when you call them good?
PlatoRead
We can be blind to the obvious, and we are also blind to our blindness.
Daniel KahnemanRead
All big things are made up of trifles. My entire life has been built on trifles.
Mahatma GandhiRead