--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: And that's what I wanted: obliteration…" description: "\"“And that's what I wanted: obliteration. Decimation. Just an instant smear of me right out of all this rising and falling and nothing changing that fee..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b5c/andre-dubus-iii-16475_quote_and-that-s-what-i-wanted-obliteration-de_1503571.jpg" --- # And that's what I wanted: obliteration. Decimation. Just… ![“And that's what I wanted: obliteration. Decimation. Just an instant smear of me right out of all this rising and falling and nothing changing that feels like living.” quote by Andre Dubus III](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b5c/andre-dubus-iii-16475_quote_and-that-s-what-i-wanted-obliteration-de_1503571.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b5c/andre-dubus-iii-16475_quote_and-that-s-what-i-wanted-obliteration-de_1503571.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b5c/andre-dubus-iii-16475_quote_and-that-s-what-i-wanted-obliteration-de_1503571.jpg) > ““And that's what I wanted: obliteration. Decimation. Just an instant smear of me right out of all this rising and falling and nothing changing that feels like living.”” [Andre Dubus III](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/andre-dubus-iii/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. The speaker craves total erasure, a desire to escape the relentless cycles of life and find a static, unchanging state that feels like true existence. **In simple terms:** Wants to vanish from life's endless motion. Key Takeaway Embrace stillness, seek inner peace. Themes existential despair escape identity stillness Mood melancholic contemplative Type philosophical literary When to use this quote - grief counseling - meditation retreats - creative writing - philosophical introspection Key Concepts nihilism self‑annihilation transcendence Questions to Reflect On - What does “nothing changing” truly mean to you? - Can stillness be found without obliteration? A Different Perspective Such total erasure may be impossible and could deepen suffering. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet ## Related quotes > [The history of life is a tale of decimation and later stabilization of few surviving anatomies, not a story of steady expansion and progress.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/stephen-jay-gould/the-history-of-life-is-a-tale-of-decimation-and-later-stabilization/) [Stephen Jay Gould](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/stephen-jay-gould/) > [The thought of continually eating something like macaroni, spat out by machinery, fills me with fear and revulsion, so I make macaroni sculptures. I…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/yayoi-kusama/the-thought-of-continually-eating-something-like-macaroni-spat-out-by/) [Yayoi Kusama](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/yayoi-kusama/) > [“There is going to be destruction: the obliteration of a person, his intellect, his experience and his agency. I am to watch it. 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