when I am feeling low all i have to do is watch my cats and my courage returns
Charles BukowskiRead
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote reflects the deep connection between beauty and despair in Bukowski's mind.
Charles Bukowski's quote exposes the intricate relationship between appreciation of natural beauty and the contemplation of darker thoughts. It suggests that moments of reflection near bodies of water or while crossing bridges trigger profound feelings of vulnerability or existential despair, highlighting how beauty can coexist with pain in life.
Themes
SuicideBeautyDespairReflectionExistentialism
In practice
Example use cases
During a mental health seminar to highlight the complexity of emotions.
More from Charles Bukowski
All quotes →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.
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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
He asked, "what makes a man a writer?" "well," I said, "it's simple, it's either you get it down on paper or you jump off a bridge. writers are desperate people and when they stop being desperate they stop being writers." "are you desperate?" "I don't know.
Charles BukowskiRead
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