Oscar Wilde quote: “We are the zanies of sorrow. We are clowns whose hearts are broken.”

“My desire to live is as intense as ever, and though my heart is broken, hearts are made to be broken: that is why God sends sorrow into the world.”

Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish writer and poet

Source: The Complete Letters of Oscar Wilde

“The writer’s job is the job of a clown …the clown who also talks about sorrow.”

Kenzaburō Ōe (1935) Japanese author

Paris Review interview (2007)

“There is no dealing with great sorrow as if it were under the control of our wills. It is a terrible phenomenon, whose laws we must study, and to whose conditions we must submit, if we would mitigate it.”

J. Sheridan Le Fanu book Uncle Silas

Source: Uncle Silas (1864), Ch. 21

“A writer's heart, a poet's heart, an artist's heart, a musician's heart is always breaking. It is through that broken window that we see the world…”

Alice Walker (1944) American author and activist

“And love is always complicated. But still humans most try to love each other, darling. We must get out hearts broken sometimes. This is a good sign, having a broken heart. It means we have tried for something.”

Elizabeth Gilbert book Eat, Pray, Love

Source: Eat, Pray, Love

“This is a good sign, having a broken heart. It means we have tried for something.”

Elizabeth Gilbert book Eat, Pray, Love

Source: Eat, Pray, Love

“I read with every broken heart
We should become more adventurous”

Jenny Lewis (1976) American actor, singer-songwriter

"More Adventurous"
Song lyrics, More Adventurous (2004)

“I remember the way we parted,
The day and the way we met;
You hoped we were both broken-hearted
And knew we should both forget.”

Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837–1909) English poet, playwright, novelist, and critic

An Interlude.
Undated

“As we look upon that agony and those tearful prayers, let us not only look with thankfulness; but lot that kneeling Saviour teach us that in prayer alone can we be forearmed against our lesser sorrows; that strength to bear flows into the heart that is opened in supplication; and that a sorrow which we are made able to endure is more truly cohijuered than a sorrow which we avoid.”

Alexander Maclaren (1826–1910) British minister

Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 71.

“It seems to me that
there are more hearts broken in the world
that can't be mended,
left unattended.
What do we do?
What do we do?”

Gilbert O'Sullivan (1946) Irish singer-songwriter

"Alone Again (Naturally)" (song)
Gilbert O'Sullivan, "Alone Again (Naturally)" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2ZjRO4s9IA (song on YouTube)
Gilbert O'Sullivan, Live performance with orchestra, February 2016 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_s7EsSY3Lw (on YouTube)
Gilbert O'Sullivan, Live street performance outside Rough Trade West, April 2017 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZWDnbkQmI8 (on YouTube)
(+ Cover version by Brush Arbor on YouTube) (banjo) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5H-reXHkhg
(+ Cover version by Shirley Bassey on YouTube) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9BFD-fpeUA
(+ Cover version by David Bayu, Vega Antares, Erikson Jayanto on YouTube) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFlLQGPSQKw
(+ Acoustic cover version by Sammy Copley on YouTube) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPPEb7SX7rk
(+ Cover version by Neil Diamond on YouTube) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soS7NmkzXns
(+ Jazz cover version by Gautier Geoffroy, Khalil Chahine and others on YouTube) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLpXePYe9EI
(+ Cover version by Fujii Kaze on YouTube) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7Gcoto1wWI
(+ Cover version by Ryan Lerman, Larry Goldings, Aaron Sterling on YouTube) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9SbVcxtZyo
(+ Cover version by Laura Oakes on YouTube) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34ml6ot1RaM
(+ Cover version by the Pet Shop Boys (feat. Elton John) on YouTube) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pasSfvAjbn8 / (Alternative version (longer)) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zppTcVbC_sk
(+ Cover version by Esther Phillips on YouTube) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPHdKP1Q7es
(+ Cover version by Ardhito Pramono on YouTube) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsqKZmmA56U
(+ Cover version by Vonda Shepard on YouTube (with pictures and lyrics)) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sH4zYVQyyCI
(+ Cover version by Soffee on YouTube (includes lyrics)) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwu668d-6yk
(+ Cover version by Suthipongse Thatphithakkul on YouTube (includes lyrics and guitar chords)) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMxdjJUfeDM
(+ Cover version by Trang Tooc, Duy Khang, Khoa Le on YouTube) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4QYST0lDDk
(+ Cover version by Diane Trask on YouTube) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zatx-iJUdXI
(+ Cover version by Joe Turone on YouTube) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWnCIZCW9bo
(+ Cover version by Sarah Vaughan on YouTube) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlqV0oo9Wqw
(+ Cover version by Andy Williams on YouTube) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7xNgnk66kE
(+ A substituted version by Nina Simone on YouTube) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMRGH0SzF64
(+ Piano instrumental by Ed Baum (on State Street, Oct. 2017) on YouTube) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7i561paKbM / (Oct. 2018) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfgjQVRM5nk
(+ Trumpet instrumental by Don Ellis on YouTube) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nU3MW8yKmmk
(+ Guitar instrumental by Daniel Estrem on YouTube) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzPlmpjrm0A
(+ Guitar instrumental by Sungha Jung on YouTube) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFo3NI9re00
(+ Orchestral instrumental, David Rose & Orchestra on YouTube) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytgJzgsuhEU
Song lyrics

“We are the zanies of sorrow. We are clowns whose hearts are broken.”

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