I took comfort, as a kid, in knowing that things had always been as awful and as wonderful as they were now, that the world was always on the edge of total destruction.
Michael ChabonRead
All male friendships are essentially quixotic: they last only so long as each man is willing to polish the shaving-bowl helmet, climb on his donkey, and ride off after the other in pursuit of illusive glory and questionable adventure.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Male friendships are often based on shared adventures and ideals, but are fleeting and can become superficial.
This quote by Michael Chabon highlights the nature of male friendships as often being romanticized and idealized, akin to the knights of old chasing after glory and adventure. The imagery of polishing a helmet and riding a donkey suggests that these friendships require effort and a willingness to pursue shared, sometimes unrealistic, goals, indicating that such relationships are often transient and dependent on mutual enthusiasm for adventure.
Themes
FriendshipMale BondsAdventureGloryTransience
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about the importance of male camaraderie at a men's retreat.
More from Michael Chabon
All quotes →A story begins with this nebulous feeling that’s hard to get a hold of and you’re testing your feelings and assumptions, testing what you believe. They end up turning into keepsakes and mementos –like amber in which a memory gets trapped.
Michael ChabonRead
I smoked and looked down at the bottom of Pittsburgh for a little while, watching the kids playing tiny baseball, the distant figures of dogs snatching at a little passing car, a miniature housewife on her back porch shaking out a snippet of red rug, and I made a sudden, frightened vow never to become that small, and to devote myself to getting bigger and bigger and bigger.
Michael ChabonRead
It's always thrilling to encounter the sweep of time in a work of fiction in a way that feels authentic and real.
Michael ChabonRead
[My dad] didn't do much apart from the traditional winning of bread. He didn't take me to get my hair cut or my teeth cleaned; he didn't make the appointments. He didn't shop for my clothes. He didn't make my breakfast, lunch, or dinner. My mom did all of those things, and nobody ever told her when she did them that it made her a good mother.
Michael ChabonRead
You need three things to become a successful novelist: talent, luck and discipline. Discipline is the one element of those three things that you can control, and so that is the one that you have to focus on controlling, and you just have to hope and trust in the other two.
Michael ChabonRead
Similar quotes
Michael Jackson? He was something more (than one of my favorite entertainers), a true friend. He wasn't just a genius. Above all, he was a good person, who gave so much. He gave people values, he encouraged them to better themselves all the time. He was far deeper and more authentic than people could see. He was misunderstood too many times
Kobe BryantRead
To embrace the whole world in friendship is wisdom. This wisdom is not changeable like the flowers that bloom and fade.
ThiruvalluvarRead
There is nothing I would not do for those who are really my friends. I have no notion of loving people by halves, it is not my nature.
Jane AustenRead
Let us drink together, fellows, as we did in days of yore. And still enjoy the golden hours that Fortune has in store; The absent friends remembered be, in all that’s sung or said, And Love immortal consecrate the memory of the dead.
Albert PikeRead
Too often, a vast collection of possessions ends up possessing its owner. The asset I most value, aside from health, is interesting, diverse, and long-standing friends.
Warren BuffettRead
A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.
King SolomonRead