Boredom was the plague of my childhood. While I was at the orphanage, the boredom came from being in a place I did not wish to be. I was bored. I was bored the entire four years I was there.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- The speaker reflects on childhood boredom in an orphanage as a feeling of being trapped in an unwanted place.
- In plain terms
- I was bored all the time at the orphanage because I did not want to be there.
- What can you take from it?
- Boredom can stem from being forced into unwanted situations.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- How does boredom affect you in restrictive places?
- What memories define your childhood boredom?
Another view
This focuses on boredom rather than the deeper trauma of institutionalization.
More from William Saroyan
My writing is careless, but all through it is something that is good, that is mine alone, that no other writer could ever achieve.
Permalink to quote #140 Many friendships are swift and accidental, the result of a chance meeting, followed by a permanent separation.
Permalink to quote #142 What is a street? It is where the living weep, where the dead go off in silence to their peace.
Permalink to quote #139
Related quotes
Can the 'word' be pinned down to either one period or one church? All churches are, of course, only more or less unsuccessful attempts to represent the unseen …
Florence NightingaleFlorence Nightingale quote #1 Sweet childish days, that were as long As twenty days are now.
William WordsworthWilliam Wordsworth quote #9 I didn't know the full dimensions of forever, but I knew it was longer than waiting for Christmas to come. --So the Wind Won't Blow It All Away, p.38
Richard BrautiganRichard Brautigan quote #11