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
I’ve had so many knives stuck into me, when they hand me a flower I can’t quite make out what it is. It takes time.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote reflects the difficulties faced in life and the struggle to accept kindness or beauty after enduring pain.
Charles Bukowski's quote conveys the profound impact of suffering and the lasting scars it leaves on a person's perception of the world. Having endured numerous hardships, the speaker finds it challenging to recognize and appreciate simple gestures of kindness, symbolized by the flower. The message resonates with anyone who has faced adversity, emphasizing that healing and appreciation take time and require overcoming past wounds.
Themes
PainHealingAppreciationSufferingKindness
In practice
Example use cases
Sharing this quote during a discussion about mental health and the importance of healing.
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
To live lightheartedly but not recklessly; to be gay without being boisterous; to be courageous without being bold; to show trust and cheerful resignation without fatalism - this is the art of living.
Jean De La FontaineRead
You were given life; it is your duty (and also your entitlement as a human being) to find something beautiful within life, no matter how slight.
Elizabeth GilbertRead
I’ve had enough, this is my prayer, that I’ll die living just as free as my hair.
Lady GagaRead
Growing up means letting go of the dearest megalomaniacal dreams of our childhood. Growing up means knowing they can't be fulfilled. Growing up means gaining the wisdom and the skills to get what we want within the limitations imposed by reality - a reality which consists of diminished powers, restricted freedoms and, with the people we love, imperfect connections.
Judith ViorstRead
I loved running, but all of a sudden everything hurt so much. I started cycling when Zelda was born.
Robin WilliamsRead
Oskar Schell: If the sun were to explode, you wouldn't even know about it for 8 minutes because thats how long it takes for light to travel to us. For eight minutes the world would still be bright and it would still feel warm. It was a year since my dad died and I could feel my eight minutes with him... were running out.
Jonathan Safran FoerRead