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
there was something about that city, though it didn't let me feel guilty that I had no feeling for the things so many others needed. it let me alone.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote expresses a sense of detachment from societal expectations and a personal acceptance of one's indifference.
In this quote, Charles Bukowski reflects on the complexity of emotions and relationships within an urban environment. The city, in its indifference, provides a sense of freedom by allowing him to acknowledge his lack of emotional connection to what others find vital, thereby letting him exist without guilt or pressure to conform to societal norms.
Themes
CityIndifferenceFreedomEmotionDetachment
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about urban life and sensory experience.
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
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