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
LSD, yeah, the big parade – everybody's doin' it now. Take LSD, then you are a poet, an intellectual. What a sick mob. I am building a machine gun in my closet now to take out as many of them as I can before they get me.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote critiques society's embrace of LSD as a shortcut to creativity and intelligence, expressing a sense of alienation and anger.
In this quote, Charles Bukowski presents a cynical view of the societal trend towards using LSD as a means of achieving artistic or intellectual status. He highlights the irony of people misleadingly believing that the drug can transform them into poets or thinkers, while he feels a deep frustration towards this collective mindset, considering it a 'sick mob.' The mention of building a machine gun implies a desire to confront or retaliate against what he perceives as a superficial and conformist community.
Themes
LsdPoetrySocietyCreativityAlienationRebellion
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about drug culture and creativity, this quote can illustrate the dangers of valuing substance over genuine artistry.
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.
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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.
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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
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