“Some nights I knew that if I slept I would die.”
—
Charles Bukowski
,
book
Hollywood
Source: Hollywood
Last update June 3, 2021.
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Charles Bukowski 555
American writer 1920–1994Related quotes
“If I knew that I could die, I would live. My life, my death, my choice.”
Terry Pratchett
(1948–2015) English author
Final lines of his Richard Dimbleby lecture Shaking Hands With Death on euthanasia and assisted suicide, quoted in "Terry Pratchett: my case for a euthanasia tribunal" in The Guardian (2 February 2010) http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/feb/02/terry-pratchett-assisted-suicide-tribunal
General sources
Context: I dare say that quite a few people have contemplated death for reasons that much later seemed to them to be quite minor. If we are to live in a world where a socially acceptable "early death" can be allowed, it must be allowed as a result of careful consideration.
Let us consider me as a test case. As I have said, I would like to die peacefully with Thomas Tallis on my iPod before the disease takes me over and I hope that will not be for quite some time to come, because if I knew that I could die at any time I wanted, then suddenly every day would be as precious as a million pounds. If I knew that I could die, I would live. My life, my death, my choice.
45 : Chinese Music
Source: The Book of Lies (1913)
Source: Killing Yourself to Live: 85% of a True Story
“That night I knew the world was headed for trouble.”
Leó Szilárd
(1898–1964) Physicist and biologist
On the experiment at University of Chicago which indicated a nuclear chain reaction was possible, as quoted in "Some Szilardisms on War, Fame, Peace", LIFE magazine, Vol. 51, no. 9 (1 September 1961), p. 79
Variants:
We turned the switch, we saw the flashes, we watched them for about ten minutes — and then we switched everything off and went home. That night I knew the world was headed for sorrow...
As quoted in the Boston University Graduate Journal (1968)
We turned the switch, saw the flashes, watched for ten minutes, then switched everything off and went home. That night I knew the world was headed for sorrow.
As quoted in The Making Of The Atomic Bomb (1986) by Richard Rhodes
Context: All we had to do was lean back, turn a switch and watch a screen of a television tube. If flashes of light appeared on the screen it would mean that liberation of atomic energy would take place in our lifetime. We turned the switch, saw the flashes — we watched for about five minutes — then switched everything off and went home. That night I knew the world was headed for trouble.