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
great writers are indecent people they live unfairly saving the best part for paper. good human beings save the world so that bastards like me can keep creating art, become immortal. if you read this after I am dead it means I made it.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote reflects the idea that great writers often lead unconventional lives, using their experiences and struggles to create art, while others contribute positively to society.
In this quote, Charles Bukowski highlights the dichotomy between the life of a writer and that of a 'good' human being. He suggests that great writers often live 'indecent' lives and reserve their deepest thoughts and feelings for their work, while those who contribute selflessly to the world allow artists like him to pursue their craft. The notion of art as a means to achieve immortality speaks to the desire for lasting impact through creative expression, and the acknowledgment that his words will outlast him underscores the significance of leaving a legacy through writing.
Themes
WritersArtCreativityLegacyImmortality
In practice
Example use cases
During a literary discussion on the nature of creativity, you might quote Bukowski to illustrate the tension between artists and societal norms.
More from Charles Bukowski
All quotes →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
Words are really beautiful, but they're limited. Words are very male, very structured. But the voice is the netherworld, the darkness, where there's nothing to hang onto. The voice comes from a part of you that just knows and expresses and is.
Jeff BuckleyRead
For me, the subject is of secondary importance: I want to convey what is alive between me and the subject.
Claude MonetRead
Most of us have the residue of thousands of songs in our ears, that if you end up songwriting, I think you're mostly smoking the residue of all that material you absorbed over time.
Tom WaitsRead
The world is a king, and like a king, desires flattery in return for favor; but true art is selfish and perverse — it will not submit to the mold of flattery.
Ludwig Van BeethovenRead
The considerations of a corporation, especially now, have nothing to do with art or music.
Joni MitchellRead
Painting is a science, and should be pursued as an inquiry into the laws of nature.
John ConstableRead