Know what we did, Lucy? You and me? We spent our whole lives yearning. Isn't that the God damndest thing?
Interpretation
The quote reflects on how people can spend their lives in longing and desire, which may ultimately be unfulfilled.
In this quote, Richard Yates expresses a profound realization about the human condition, emphasizing the idea that much of life can be spent in yearning for what we do not have, rather than appreciating what we do have. This sentiment captures the bittersweet nature of existence, where desires often overshadow the present moment, leading to a sense of dissatisfaction and regret. It suggests a reflective examination of life and the futility of longing, inviting readers to consider their own experiences with desire and fulfillment.
In practice
In a speech about pursuing happiness, this quote can illustrate the need to focus on living fully rather than desiring what is out of reach.
She was calm and quiet now with knowing what she had always known, what neither her parents nor Aunt Claire nor Frank nor anyone else had ever had to teach her: that if you wanted something to do something absolutely honest, something true, it always turned out to be a thing that had to be done alone.
He found it so easy and so pleasant to cry that he didn’t try to stop for a while, until he realized he was forcing his sobs a little, exaggerating their depth with unnecessary shudders. … The whole point of crying is to quit before you coined it up. The whole point of grief itself was to cut it out while it was still honest, while it still meant something. Because the thing was so easily corrupted
Do you know what the definition of insane is? Yes. It’s the inability to relate to another human being. It’s the inability to love.
It's a disease. Nobody thinks or feels or cares any more; nobody gets excited or believes in anything except their own comfortable little God damn mediocrity.
She just happened to feel like it. Wasn’t that after all, the only reason there was? Had she ever had a less selfish, more complicated reason for doing anything in her life?
He knew it was possible for shame to be nursed and doctored like an illness, if you wanted to keep it separate from the rest of your life, but that didn't mean there'd be any way to keep from knowing it was there.
The names are the first things to go, after the breath has gone, and the beating of the heart. We keep our memories longer than our names.
For the rest of my life there are two days that will never again trouble me. The first day is yesterday with all its blunders and tears, follies and defeats. Yesterday has passed away, beyond my control forever. The other day is tomorrow with all its pitfalls and threats, its dangers and mystery. Until the sun rises again I have no stake in tomorrow, for it is still unborn.
I find now, swallowing one teaspoon of pain, that it drops downward to the past where it mixes with last year’s cupful and downward into a decade’s quart and downward into a lifetime’s ocean. I alternate treading water and deadman’s float.
There is little peace or comfort in life if we are always anxious as to future events. He that worries himself with the dread of possible contingencies will never be at rest.
When we are young, we are slavishly employed in procuring something whereby we may live comfortably when we grow old; and when we are old, we perceive it is too late to live as we proposed.
Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming "Wow! What a Ride!
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