Charles Bukowski

“If you have the ability to love, love yourself first.”

“So, that’s what they wanted: lies. Beautiful lies. That’s what they needed. People were fools. It was going to be easy for me.”

“Love is alright for those who can handle the psychic overload. It's like trying to carry a full garbage can on your back over a rushing river of piss!!”

“Por la mañana era de día y yo seguía vivo. Quizás escriba una novela, pensé. Y eso hice.”

“Don’t do it. Don’t love me.”

“I have one problem, I don’t hate people. They disgust me and I want to get away from them. I do not have hatred. I have an escape mechanism.”

“the grace is being able to like rock music,symphony music, jazz …anything that contains the original energy ofjoy.”

“Anlaşılan ben zayıf bir insanım.İncil'i denedim;filozofları,şairleri,ama bir şekilde hepsi hedef şaşırmışlardı.Tamamen başka bir şeyden bahsediyorlardı. Ben de okumayı kestim uzun bir süre önce.İçki,kumar ve seks biraz işe yarıyordu ve bu yaşantımda cemiyetin,şehrin,ülkenin herhangi bir ferdi gibiydim; ancak tek fark, benim 'başarmak' isteği duymamamdı.Bir aile istemiyordum,ev istemiyordum,saygın bir iş istemiyordum.Böyleydim işte:Entelektüel değilim,sanatçı değilim,alalade bir insanı kurtaran köklerden yoksunum.Arada derede kalmış bir şey gibiyim ve sanırım bu da deliliğin başlangıcıdır.”

“Sento ancora la follia scorrermi dentro, ma ancora non ho scritto le parole che avrei voluto, la tigre mi è rimasta sulla schiena. Morirò con addosso quella figlia di puttana, ma almeno le ho dato battaglia. E se fra voi c'è qualcuno che si sente abbastanza matto da voler diventare scrittore, gli consiglio va' avanti, sputa in un occhio al sole, schiaccia quei tasti, è la migliore pazzia che possa esserci, i secoli chiedono aiuto, la specie aspira spasmodicamente alla luce, e all'azzardo e alle risate. Regalateglieli. Ci sono abbastanza parole per noi tutti.”

“Sulla via per l'inferno c'è sempre un sacco di gente, ma è comunque una via che si percorre in solitudine.”

“A man could lose his identity fucking around too much.”

“as a childi supposei was not quitenormal.my happiest times werewheni was left alone inthe house on asaturday.”

“we waste days like mad blackbirds and pray for alcoholic nightsour silk-sick human smiles wrap around us like somebody else's confetti”

“we are a scene chalked out with the sick white brush of age”

“magic persists without usno matter what we may do to try to spoil it”

“The centuries are sprinkled with rare magicwith divine creatureswho help us get past the common and extraordinary ills that beset us”

“Women wanted men who made money, women wanted men of mark. How many classy women were living with skid row bums? Well, I didn't want a woman anyhow. Not to live with. How could men live with women? What did it mean? What I wanted was a cave in Colorado with three years' worth of foodstuffs and drink. I'd wipe my ass with sand. Anything, anything to stop drowning in this dull, trivial and cowardly existence.”

“I could stay with Mears-Starbuck for forty-seven years, I thought. I could live with a crazy girlfriend, get my left ear sliced off and maybe inherit Ferris' job when he retired.”

“Nobody but youNessuno può salvarti se nontu stesso.Sarai continuamente messoin situazioni praticamenteimpossibili.Ti metteranno continuamente alla provacon sotterfugi, inganni esforziper farti capitolare, arrendere e/o morire silenziosamentedentro.Nessuno può salvarti se nontu stessoe sarà abbastanza facile falliredavvero facilissimoma non farlo, non farlo, non farlo.Guardali e basta.Ascoltali.Vuoi diventare così?Un essere senza volto, senza cervello, senza cuore?Vuoi provarela morte prima della morte?Nessuno può salvarti se nontu stessoe vale la pena di salvarti.È una guerra non facile da vincerema se c’è qualcosa che vale la pena vincereè questa.Pensaci supensa al fatto di salvare il tuo io.Il tuo io spirituale.il tuo io viscerale.il tuo io magico che canta eil tuo io bellissimo.Salvalo.Non unirti ai morti-di-spirito.Mantieni il tuo iocon umorismo e benevolenzae alla finese necessarioscommetti sulla tua vita mentre combatti,fottitene dei pronostici, fottitenedel prezzo.Solo tu puoi salvare il tuoio.Fallo! Fallo!Allora saprai esattamente di cosasto parlando.”

“There will always be something to ruin our lives. It all depends on what or which finds us first. You’re always ripe and ready to be taken.”

“People empty me. I have to get away to refill.”

“I didn't like anybody in that school. I think they knew that. I think that's why they disliked me. I didn't like the way they walked or looked or talked, but I didn't like my mother or father either. I still had the feeling of being surrounded by white empty space. There was always a slight nausea in my stomach.”

“Your parents don't give you much love, do they?''I don't need that stuff,' I told her.'Henry, everybody needs love.''I don't need anything.''You poor boy.”

“I avoided any direct reference to Jews and Blacks, who had never given me any trouble. All my trouble had come from white gentiles.”

“I guess the only time most people think about injustice is when it happens to them.”

“I never pump up my vulgarity. I wait for it to arrive in its own terms.”

“Then I gave up trying to please her and simply fucked her, ripping viciously. It was like murder. I didn't care; my cock had gone crazy.”

“I was in love again. I was in trouble”

“No, the less I see them the better i like them.”

“I got my hands under the breasts, lifted them. Tons of meat. Meat without mouth or eye. MEAT MEAT MEAT. i slammed it into my mouth and flew into heaven.”

“How are his poems?""He's not as good as he thinks he is, but then most of us feel that way.”

“Když chce někdo zabít Boha, znamená to, že ho chci zabít i já?”

“Trouble and pain were what kept a man alive. Or trying to avoid trouble and pain. It was a full time job.”

“If I never see you again I will always carry youinsideoutsideon my fingertipsand at brain edgesand in centerscentersof what I am ofwhat remains.”

“I went home each night dizzy and sick. He was murdering me with the sound of his voice.”

“Once a woman turns against you, forget it. They can love you, then something turns in them. They can watch you dying in a gutter, run over by a car, and they'll spit on you.”

“I always started a job with the feeling that I'd soon quit or be fired, and this gave ma a relaxex manner that was mistaken for intelligence or some secret power.”

“We use such big words to move nowhere.”

“Women: I liked the colors of their clothing; the way they walked; the cruelty in some faces; now and then the almost pure beauty in another face, totally and enchantingly female. They had it over us: they planned much better and were better organized. While men were watching professional football or drinking beer or bowling, they, the women, were thinking about us, concentrating, studying, deciding - whether to accept us, discard us, exchange us, kill us or whether simply to leave us. In the end it hardly mattered; no matter what they did, we ended up lonely and insane.”

“wszystko jest stratą czasu, chyba że człowiek pieprzy się w najlepsze, tworzy w najlepsze, ma się jak najlepiej albo zmierza w kierunku ułudy pod tytułem miłość i szczęście. Wszyscy kończymy w gnojówce porażki - czy nazwiemy to śmiercią czy błędem.”

“The whole world is a sack of shit ripping open. I can´t save it.”

“Pretty words, as pretty women, wrinkle up and die.”

“there are so many dayswhen living stops and pulls up and sitsand waits like a train on the rails.”

“and if I have any advice to give to anybody it’s this: take up watercolor painting.”

“I lapsed into my pathetic cut-off period. Often with humans, both good and bad, my senses simply shut off, they get tired, I give up. I am polite. I nod. I pretend to understand because I don’t want anybody to be hurt. That is the one weakness that has lead me into the most trouble. Trying to be kind to others I often get my soul shredded into a kind of spiritual pasta.No matter. My brain shuts off. I listen. I respond. And they are too dumb to know that I am not there.”

“I wasn't sleeping on the streets at night. Of course, there were a lot of good people sleeping in the streets. They weren't fools, they just didn't fit into the needed machinery of the moment. And those needs kept altering.”

“The shoulder blades sticking out as if they wanted to grow wings through that skin. Little blades, she was helpless.”

“i am going to start selling air in dark orange bags marked: moon-blooms”

“and even the trees we walkedunderseemedless thantreesand more like everythingelse.”

“Hay cosas peores que estar solo pero a menudo toma décadas darse cuenta de ello y más a menudo cuando esto ocurre es demasiado tarde y no hay nada peor que un demasiado tarde.”