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
Turgenev was a very serious fellow but he could make me laugh because a truth first encountered can be very funny. When someone else's truth is the same as your truth, and he seems to be saying it just for you, that's great.
Interpretation
This quote highlights the humor found in recognizing shared truths with others, particularly when expressed in a relatable way.
Charles Bukowski reflects on the joy and humor that can arise when someone articulates a truth that resonates personally with us. It suggests that there is a unique connection and laughter that comes from the realization that another person shares our perspective or experience, making the serious nature of those truths more approachable and amusing.
In practice
In a speech about friendship, one could use this quote to emphasize the bond shared through laughter and mutual understanding.
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.
when I am feeling low all i have to do is watch my cats and my courage returns
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.
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.
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.
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.
How old are you?" asked Door. Richard was pleased she had asked; he would never have dared. "As old as my tongue," said Hunter, primly, "and a little older than my teeth.
There are many times when a woman will ask another girl friend how she likes her new hat. She will reply, 'Fine,' but slap her hand to her forehead the minute the girl leaves to yipe, 'What a horror!'
On my tombstone, I want written: 'He never did 'Love Boat!''
I write funny. If I can make my wife laugh, I know I'm on the right track.
Adolescence: The stage between puberty and adultery.
No man who has once heartily and wholly laughed can be altogether irreclaimably bad.
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