Quotessence
Home / Authors / Karl Kristian Flores

Karl Kristian Flores Quotes

Author

Filter quotes by topic

AllThe Goodbye SongSocietyLonelinessSadnessLoveIdentityRomanceHeartbreakHumanityLifeMissing SomeoneRelationshipsArtUnrequited LovePhilosophySolitudeAttractionFriendshipPainCourage

Famous Karl Kristian Flores Quotes

“I can’t do relationships because I’m afraid it will get boring. My friendships are boring. And married couples only talk about how to upgrade the house. I don’t want you and I to be bored ever and so I don’t want to ruin that. People aren’t meant to be so close to each other," said Andrew. "Andrew," said Nora. "There are some people you meet who are worth being boring with.”

FearRelationshipsDatingBoredomGrowing OldFear Of FailureDating AdviceThe Goodbye SongBeing BoredGetting Bored Of Someone
Book:The Goodbye Song
Create image

“We discard the elderly, but the elderly used to discard the elderly. Those old people we tease are just listening to our insults and not deciding to speak. They’re not stupid. They just understand. Old people are young people who’ve had a few more heartbreaks, thousands of more workdays, and who’ve prepared a dozen more eulogies.”

JudgmentAdolescenceOld PeopleGetting OlderGrowing OldOpinionsThe Goodbye SongInsultsYoung PeopleThe Elderly
Book:The Goodbye Song
Create image

“The second I get into a car and we start driving, I imagine a fatal crash to the last detail. When I’m in the liquor store, I imagine a robbery by the time the cashier tells me the total. Every plane ride is an 8-hour movie in my head of me planning what I would say to the stranger on my right if the pilot announced the plane was crashing. I always imagine these scenarios. Family dying. Earthquakes. The earth suddenly falling because gravity left the party. It’s exhausting. Yesterday someone was afraid of me. I was bicycling with Austin and we saw a dead deer on the road. It was so large. Austin nearly fell off his bike when he saw it. Then he looked over at me confused. He asked why I didn't react to it. I told him it was because I’d already imagined one six miles back. There are always two worlds playing in my head at once: what’s in front of me and what could be.”

DeathLonelinessMental HealthVulnerabilitySecretsConfessionThe Goodbye SongOverthinkingOcdMental Illnessl
Book:The Goodbye Song
Create image

“Some people only needed you for transactions. Don’t let sweet personalities fool you into thinking they’ll hold your hand if it’s got blood on it. If one day, you lost a leg, your boss wouldn’t close the store branch for you. If you lost a home, your old classmates wouldn’t lend you theirs. If you decided to give up, your circle will say you made the right decision. No one’s going to save you, but they love meeting you. And so suddenly, when you lose, the whole world turns on you. A freak— as if alienation was only one amputation, one home, one failure away.”

SocietyLonelinessSolitudeIsolationAlienationHelplessnessOutcastThe Goodbye SongOutsiderAmputation
Book:The Goodbye Song
Create image

“A lonely shivering afterward awaits your last sentence, like the wind that blows on the last man standing in a war, heaving on a battlefield no one will remember. Creation isn’t hard. Sleeping in two places at once is hard. Once you create, someone else holds you—on their desk. In the backseat. On their phones. Between their palms. Behold eternal agitation. Writers embark on a revolutionary idea only to be congratulated by katydids. Hearts spill on 8.5x11’s, scratching away their disguise, and then return to lunchtime feeling less than an inch themselves. How do you expect to survive?”

WritingArtCreativityLonelinessSolitudeCreatingPoetsThe Goodbye SongWriters On Writers
Book:The Goodbye Song
Create image

“The wide-eyed professor lectured, on the verge of tears, and when class ended, the students closed their notebooks shut and asked of her plans for the weekend, which was answered politely, but with a tinge of sadness, for the professor feared her personhood, which had in her lesson plan existed truly only minutes ago, was already being reduced to the small, meaningless matters of tomorrow.”

SocietyLonelinessIdentityMeaningUnseenThe Goodbye SongUnheardConversationsPersonhood
Book:The Goodbye Song
Create image

“Companionship will be made possible from enduring lonely nights, leaving the wrong drinking buddies, books and benches, concerts and stadiums, and universities and clothing stores. These were the conditions necessary for companionship. You will answer the question all souls ask: How will I find you? The answer: Truth magnetizes to truth, as long as it repels temptation.”

FriendshipLonelinessConsequenceEnduranceCompanionshipBeing AloneThe Goodbye Song
Book:The Goodbye Song
Create image

“Sometimes I’ll be in my room and recall a terrible memory. I’ll laugh ridiculously into my bed or when I remember an embarrassing moment, I’ll curl up, crinkling myself with blankets I wish could swallow me away into another world. I probably look crazy—some girl reacting to her own head, so I make sure to say what I’m thinking out loud in order for the ghosts to understand. They may have seen a lot, but they’re not mind readers and may appreciate a backstory or two.”

HumorLonelinessBeing YourselfPrivacySecretsGhostsHumiliationEmbarrassmentThe Goodbye SongWeird Quotes
Book:The Goodbye Song
Create image

“The Day: Wondering if I’m mental Wondering if you are Stretching my spine Masturbating then hating it Falling in love on aisle 12 Acting tough in public Singing in the shower Lotioning my untouched body Fretting about my skin Missing her again And when I’m about to sleep, I wish I could just fast forward To wondering if I’m mental.”

PoetryFearLonelinessMental HealthBoredomPoemsSad QuotesThe Goodbye SongIntrovertsMundane Life
Book:The Goodbye Song
Create image

“I am off to a life where I can exist in a room and not have to pretend I want to be there. I am off to hear people who have something to say. I don’t even have to agree with it— I just want to know what it’s like to listen to a real sentence. I long for a time where I don’t wish the day would be over. This means leaving the company. I can wonder, or I can wander—and it’s time for me to get lost. Reinvention is hard. To let it go? To admit you don’t love something anymore? That’s the stuff that kills you. But I must run before another workday asks for me again. Things are hard so that we can start. I feel like fate is blindfolding me. My arms reach out not knowing if I’ll impale myself or secure my foothold—but all great things come from motion. Nothing begets nothing. And I’m scared, but I have the movies with me. The things we love require us. I wonder what would happen if everyone in the world did what they loved. Would things fall into place and leave no empty spaces? Would there be harmony in the work field? Sustainable marriages? Children with parents? Dirty water? Would there be resignation letters?”

GrowthMoving OnWorking ClassExhaustionThe Goodbye SongWork Life BalanceNumbnessReinventionResigningQuitting Your Job
Book:The Goodbye Song
Create image

“I hate running into people. They take the random places. That door over there. Fuck that door. It was an hour before class on the first day and Justin came out right as I was walking in. Bumped in and scared the ba- Jesus out of me and every time I walked into that door, I remembered him. For four years that space belonged to that moment. It’s like everywhere we walk, all we see internally is a landmark of people and moments you’ll never have again.”

RelationshipsMemoryNostalgiaMoving OnFriendshipsThe PastThe Goodbye SongRemembering Loved OnesMissing People
Book:The Goodbye Song
Create image

“It was agreed that to stay with one person your whole life was to not only prevent life experience, but have a miserable elder life by having to stay with another ugly old-looking person. If you stayed single forever, however, one wouldn’t have to lie and say to their wrinkly, crooked-backed lover, “Good morning, beautiful.” Thus, everyone pretty much died alone. At least they died honestly. But these people did not live honestly. At some point, every person once wished to tell that morning lie—to be soothed and supported by an unconditional, unwavering agreement during the cold ends of one’s life. A lie of attraction in exchange for company, they theorized. But they missed the point. Marriage in one’s elder life isn’t to lie and say, “Good morning, beautiful,” but to joke and say, “Good morning, ugly.”

RomanceRelationshipsMarriageTrue LoveOld AgeGetting OldGrowing OldThe Goodbye SongFear Of RelationshipsTrue Marriage
Book:The Goodbye Song
Create image

“Many more looked around at happy and unhappy things alike, left the room, and agreed to the pen. It’s a weird occasion, writing is. It appears as peaceful, silent years of nothing, but implies the valor of someone fighting a lifelong monster. To decide to wield the pen is a win with no victory. But some lines of theirs were more important than satisfaction. What is a bookshelf but a place for us to see all the nights our dearest of friends did not see their own?”

WritingArtPoetryReadingCreativityBooksWritersPoetsWriters On WritingThe Goodbye Song
Book:The Goodbye Song
Create image

“Does age constitute maturity or an accumulation of observations? If you look at your phone all day and you’re 40 and the 22-year-old for all their life has roamed life hands-free, who has lived longer? Why measure age when you can measure the development and streak of your consciousness? How often are you in control? Not because you’re controlling a phone— because really you’re just receiving stimuli and algorithms control you. How often do you think? I miss the time where the high seats playing God in their big offices were scared of the person who thinks. But they’re not anymore. Because they already won. The threat died. No one thinks.”

AgeTechnologyGrowing UpSocietySocial JusticeConformityIndividualismThe Goodbye SongTechnology AddictionThe Internet
Book:The Goodbye Song
Create image

“Are you kidding? It was beautiful!' exclaimed the janitor. 'Just because you did something when you were younger doesn’t make it stupid. It doesn’t matter if it was a little college show or Broadway, meaningful things are still meaningful things. People can make fun of you for it, sour people, call you childish, but I been around a long time. Both of your two lives combined. And there’s no guarantee people get to do a great show of A Doll’s House ever again. Either life happens or death happens and we may never get another chance. Least thing we can do is to wake up in the morning and protect the good things that were. The past deserves it.”

WisdomMemoriesGrowing UpHonorTheatreNostalgiaAdolescenceMissing SomeoneThe Goodbye SongHonoring The Past
Book:The Goodbye Song
Create image

“I think we all have to meet more people. Help others, be hurt by others, learn from them, fight with them, listen to them, and see things. Over time, one starts to develop a universal voice that is all-fitting— soothing to grandmas, yet exciting to kids. Loud enough to cheer in a stadium and soft enough to whisper in church. A voice that makes sense both to a hungry man on the street and a university professor. An experienced body breeds an encompassing voice.”

LifePhilosophyCharacterInspirationGrowthRelationshipsRiskAdventurePersonalityThe Goodbye Song
Book:The Goodbye Song
Create image

“How are you? Did you ever go to Brazil? What do you eat in a day? Are you off the pills? Did you find love? Did you cut your hair? Do you watch the news or do you still not care? Did you ever finish that book you told me about? I read it every Valentine’s. Do you think of me when you tour the South? I wanna know what your days are like. A straight A student like you— I heard you left school. Goddamn, I wish I knew. I’ll always be a guessing fool. But I don’t worry, that’s the easy thing about loving a smart girl She’ll make the right decisions whether or not you’re in her world.”

SongOld AgeUnrequited LoveGrowing OldMissing SomeoneThe Goodbye SongLove SongRomance Music
Book:The Goodbye Song
Create image

“I wonder how many people would care about the world if they could do it anonymously. It’s fine to believe what we want, but it’s not fine to think people are less than us because they think different. Different is beautiful. Variety is gracious. We live in a time of two: you or me. It’s so cold.”

PoliticsAcceptanceEmpathyVarietyDivisionUniquenessPolitical ScienceBeing DifferentThe Goodbye SongPolitical Divide
Book:The Goodbye Song
Create image

“Say we’re only here because of stars and explosions. Things 
don’t need to realize themselves to survive, yet every man carries with him a dimension of irresolution regarding his existence that insecurely colors everything he does in a day. Intuition. A deep knowing. A recurrent dream. Have you ever had a dream that makes more sense than life? Explain coincidence. Explain the start. What is déjà vu? And is there not something eerie about being born into a world that was already prepared? It’s not that we want a God, it’s that everyone secretly knows there’s supposed to be one.”

ReligionHumanityUniverseExistenceMankindIntuitionMeaning Of LifeThe Goodbye SongDarwinismDeja Vu
Book:The Goodbye Song
Create image

“Mr. Halsworth paced stiffly around the classroom and tapped his pointer stick to the chalkboard with “Darwinism” written on the center, dead- center, the kind of dead-centeredness so as to safely and absolutely hide his embarrassed uncertainty of why there was electricity in his brain, seven guided octillion atoms in his body, standing on an earth of perfect living conditions, and intuition of a God in his gut.”

GodReligionUniverseFreedomAtheismIdentityCertaintyThe Goodbye SongAtheists
Book:The Goodbye Song
Create image

“There is one secret men keep from each other every day: I can’t be there for you. When a broken man looks in the eyes of a brother and confesses his tragedies, all a person, no matter how good, can reply is say, “I’m sorry to hear that.” But you thought there was something they could do because you drank together, officed together, laughed together, and joked about death together, but when death comes, you will be terrified to learn how helpless we are.”

DeathSocietyMankindTragedySecretsCompanionshipBeing AloneHelplessnessFriendshipsThe Goodbye Song
Book:The Goodbye Song
Create image

“The soldier was the greatest speaker, the sailor the best musician, and the post office worker the best poet—for life entered them and came out another way—never forced—yet because we couldn’t locate them, or their works, other speakers spoke and never went to war, and other musicians played who never listened to the sea, and new poets poeticized dryly without ever leaving their apartments, nobly forfeiting a normal place in the world, and created art in mediocre attempts, but it was necessary to try, because if they didn’t, we wouldn’t find them either.”

InspirationalArtPoetryHumanityMankindCreationCommunicationArtistsThe Goodbye Song
Book:The Goodbye Song
Create image

“Regret isn’t a strong enough motivator. They tell you to travel because if you don’t, you’ll regret it down the road. And so everyone did things that stemmed from a negative origin. Sex because I’ll get old. Dieting because I’ll get fat. Work because I’ll be poor. Success to prove my doubters wrong. But desire must derive from the action. It must be the thing that supplies us with a reason. The rest is negative fuel. We must jump over the crack in the cliff not because we’d regret never doing it, but because the other side of the rock calls to us. We must be drawn to the activity itself and let today lead us, rather than allow an invisible future do the haunting. We must live in additions. There’s a difference between “Oh, at least I don’t regret it” versus “Wow, that was a beautiful train I took.”

PhilosophyInspirationMotivationIdentityAdventureRegretTravelMeaningThe Goodbye SongRisks
Book:The Goodbye Song
Create image

“The reasons of even the tiniest human gesture are the only thing that separate us from a rock that falls because of gravity. Reasons are all we have, so we might as well make them beautiful ones. Everything expires, except our decisions. Choice is immortal. They are like indelible soulwaves to the universe. Why climb higher and higher when you can ride the straight, rare line that is truth?”

PhilosophyTruthBeautyIdentityMoralityDecisionsMeaningChoiceThe Goodbye SongReasons
Book:The Goodbye Song
Create image

“Our teachers forgot to mention that by throwing our tassels in the air, we throw every shit anyone can ever give about us. The world says it cares, but it goes ahead and does something different. I wish we weren’t cared for later than we’re supposed to be cared for. It's like: 'You graduated college. There’s no way you have any trace of still being a scared child. Oh, you fucked up? Here’s a jail cell.”

SocietyCollegeHigh SchoolUniversityAdolescenceGraduationEducation SystemThe Goodbye SongGraduating
Book:The Goodbye Song
Create image