Charles Bukowski

“What a woman wants is a reaction. What a man wants is a woman.”

“To experience real agony is something hard to write about, impossible to understand while it grips you; you're frightened out of your wits, can’t sit still, move, or even go decently insane.”

“When you drank the world was still out there, but for the moment it didn’t have you by the throat.”

“We are here to drink beer. We are here to kill war. We are here to laugh at the odds and live our lives so well that Death will tremble to take us.”

“When you play the field selfishly everythingworks against you:one can’t insist on love ordemand affection.you’re finally left with whateveryou have been willing to givewhich often is:nothing.”

“We don’t even ask happiness, just a little less pain.”

“I wasn’t lonely. I experienced no self-pity. I was just caught up in a life in which I could find no meaning.”

“We have wasted History like a bunch of drunks shooting dice back in the men's crapper of the local bar.”

“one more creaturedizzy with love”

“I knew I was strong, and maybe like they said, "crazy." But I had this feeling inside of me that something real was there.”

“The nights you fight best arewhen all the weapons are pointed at you,when all the voices hurl their insultswhile the dream is being strangled.The nights you fight best arewhen reason gets kicked in the gut,when the chariots of gloom encircle you.The nights you fight best arewhen the laughter of fools fills the air,when the kiss of death is mistaken for love.The nights you fight best arewhen the game is fixed,when the crowd screams for your blood.The nights you fight best areon a night like thisas you chase a thousand dark rats from your brain,as you rise up against the impossible,as you become a brother to the tender sister of joyand move on regardless.”

“I didn't like parties.I didn't know how to dance and people frightened me, especially people at parties. They attempted to be sexy and gay and witty and although they hoped they were good at it, they weren 't. They were bad at it. Their trying so hard only made it worse.”

“People don't do me much good.”

“Getting drunk was good. I decided that I would always like getting drunk. It took away the obvious and maybe if you could get away from the obvious often enough, you wouldn't become so obvious yourself.”

“It’s so easy to be easy—if you let it.”

“Sometimes a man doesn’t know what to do about things and sometimes it’s best to lie very still and try not to think at all about anything.”

“I will remember your small room, the feel of you, the light in the window, your records, your books, our morning coffee, our noons, our nights, our bodies spilled together, sleeping, the tiny flowing currents, immediate and forever. Your leg, my leg, your arm, my arm, your smile and the warmth of you who made me laugh again.”

“Everything else just kept picking and picking, hacking away. And nothing was interesting, nothing. The people were restrictive and careful, all alike. And I've got to live with these fuckers for the rest of my life, I thought.”

“It was only the matter of a new voice. Nobody listened to an old voice anymore. Old voices became a part of one's self, like a fingernail.”

“I'm fucking the grave, I thought, I'm bringing the dead back to life...”

“Early evening traffic was beginning to clog the avenue with cars. The sun slanted down behind him. Harry glanced at the drivers of the cars. They seemed unhappy. The world was unhappy. People were in the dark. People were terrified and disappointed. People were caught in traps. People were defensive and frantic. They felt as if their lives were being wasted. And they were right.”

“what you werewill not happen again.the tigers have found meand I do not care.”

“The area dividing the brain and the soul Is affected in many ways by experience --Some lose all mind and become soul:insane.Some lose all soul and become mind:intellectual.Some lose both and become:accepted.”

“Thirty- eight years old and he was finished. He sipped at the coffee and remembered where he had gone wrong -- or right. He'd simply gotten tired -- of the insurance game, of the small offices and high glass partitions, the clients; he'd simply gotten tired of cheating on his wife, of squeezing secretaries in the elevator and in the halls;he'd gotten tired of Christmas parties and New Year's parties and birthdays, and payments on new cars and furniture payments -- light, gas, water -- the whole bleeding complex of necessities.He'd gotten tired and quit, that's all. The divorce came soon enough and the drinking came soon enough, and suddenly he was out of it. He had nothing, and he found out that having nothing was difficult too. It was another type of burden. If only there were some gentler road in between. It seemed a man only had two choices -- get in on the hustle or be a bum.”

“I was settled into nothingness; a kind of non-being, and I accepted it. It didn't make for an interesting person. I didn't want to be interesting, it was too hard. What I really wanted was only a soft, hazy space to live in, and to be left alone.”

“Goodness can be found sometimes in the middle of hell.”

“I was glad I wasn't in love, that I wasn't happy with the world. I like being at odds with everything. People in love often become edgy, dangerous. They lose their sense of perspective. They lose their sense of humor. They become nervous, psychotic bores. They even become killers.”

“when I am feelinglowall i have to do iswatch my catsand mycouragereturns”

“Meanwhile the 3 a.m. drunks of the world would lay in their beds, trying in vain to sleep, and deserving that rest, if they could find it.”

“If I bet on humanity, I'd never cash a ticket.”

“Si vas a intentarlo, que sea a fondo. Si no, mejor que ni empieces. Puede que pierdas familia, mujer, amistad, trabajos y hasta la cabeza. Puede que no comas en días, puede que te congeles en un banco de la calle. No importa. Es una prueba de resistencia para saber que puedes hacerlo. Y lo harás. A pesar del rechazo y de la incertidumbre, será mejor que cualquier cosa que hayas imaginado. Te sentirás a solas con los dioses, y las noches arderán en llamas. Cabalgarás la vida hasta la risa perfecta. Es la única batalla que cuenta.”

“He fell off the table like a crab looking for the sea.”

“crawled like a blind slug into the web”

“where some god pissed a rain of reason to make things grow only to die,”

“Maledetti noiosi. Su tutta la Terra. Che diffondono altri maledetti noiosi. Che spettacolo dell'orrore. La Terra ne brulicava.”

“Un bel quartiere. Definizione di un bel quartiere: un posto in cui non puoi permetterti di abitare.”

“Lo strizzacervelli non sapeva che l'attesa è una di quelle cose che fa impazzire la gente? La gente aspettava per tutta la vita. Aspettava per vivere, aspettava per morire. Aspettava in fila per comprare la carta igienica. E se non aveva quattrini aspettava in file più lunghe. Aspettavi per dormire e poi aspettavi per svegliarti. Aspettavi per sposarti e poi aspettavi per divorziare. Aspettavi che piovesse poi aspettavi che smettesse. Aspettavi per mangiare poi aspettavi per mangiare di nuovo. Aspettavi nello studio di uno strizzacervelli con una masnada di psicopatici e ti chiedevi se lo fossi anche tu.”

“Non ero ancora morto, solo in un stato di rapido decadimento.”

“Ma l'aspetto positivo dell'essere un ubriacone è che non eri mai stitico. A volte pensavo al fegato, ma lui non parlava mai, non diceva mai: "Smettila tu stai ammazzando me io ammazzerò te " Se avessimo il fegato parlante non avremmo bisogno degli Alcolisti Anonimi.”

“People are strange: They are constantly angered by trivial things, but on a major matter like totally wasting their lives, they hardly seem to notice.”

“The war. Here I was a virgin. Could you imagine getting your ass blown off for the sake of history before you even knew what a woman was? Or owned an automobile? What would I be protecting? Somebody else. Somebody else who didn't give a shit about me. Dying in a war never stopped wars from happening.”

“I could see the road ahead of me. I was poor and I was going to stay poor. But I didn't particularly want money. I didn't know what I wanted. Yes, I did. I wanted someplace to hide out, someplace where one didn't have to do anything. The thought of being something didn't only appall me, it sickened me. The thought of being a lawyer or a councilman or an engineer, anything like that, seemed impossible to me. To get married, to have children, to get trapped in the family structure. To go someplace to work every day and to return. It was impossible. To do things, simple things, to be part of family picnics, Christmas, the 4th of July, Labor Day, Mother's Day . . . was a man born just to endure those things and then die? I would rather be a dishwasher, return alone to a tiny room and drink myself to sleep.”

“Jag föddes för att kränga rosor på de dödas avenyer”

“the beautiful are found in the edge of a room crumpled into spiders and needles and silence and we can never understand why they left,they were so beautiful. they dont make it, the beautiful die young and leave the ugly to their ugly lives.”

“The Blue Birdfrom The Last Night of the Earth Poemsthere’s a bluebird in my heart thatwants to get outbut I’m too tough for him,I say, stay in there, I’m not goingto let anybody seeyou.there’s a bluebird in my heart thatwants to get outbut I pour whiskey on him and inhalecigarette smokeand the whores and the bartendersand the grocery clerksnever know thathe’sin there.there’s a bluebird in my heart thatwants to get outbut I’m too tough for him,I say,stay down, do you want to messme up?you want to screw up theworks?you want to blow my book sales inEurope?there’s a bluebird in my heart thatwants to get outbut I’m too clever, I only let him outat night sometimeswhen everybody’s asleep.I say, I know that you’re there,so don’t be sad.then I put him back,but he’s still singing a littlein there, I haven’t quite let himdieand we sleep together likethatwith oursecret pactand it’s nice enough tomake a manweep, but I don’tweep, doyou?”

“The best thing about the bedroom was the bed. I liked to stay in bed for hours, even during the day with covers pulled up to my chin. It was good in there, nothing ever occurred in there, no people, nothing.”

“They swallow God without thinking, they swallow country without thinking. Soon they forget how to think, they let others think for them.”

“Never get out of bed before noon.”

“It began when they come took me from my homeAnd put me in Dead Row,Of which I am nearly wholly innocent, you know.And I'll say it againI..am..not..afraid..to..die.And the mercy seat is waitingAnd I think my head is burningAnd in a way I'm yearningTo be done with all this measuring of truth.An eye for an eyeA tooth for a toothAnd anyway I told the truthAnd I'm not afraid to die.And the mercy seat is burningAnd I think my head is glowingAnd in a way I'm hopingTo be done with all this weighing up of truth.An eye for an eyeAnd a tooth for a toothAnd I've got nothing left to loseAnd I'm not afraid to die.And the mercy seat is glowingAnd I think my head is smokingAnd in a way I'm hopingTo be done with all this looks of disbelief.An eye for an eyeAnd a tooth for a toothAnd anyway there was no proofNor a motive why.And the mercy seat is waitingAnd I think my head is burningAnd in a way I'm yearningTo be done with all this measuring of truth.An eye for an eyeAnd a truth for a truthAnd anyway I told the truthBut I'm afraid I told a lie.”

“dear J: I feel lucky that I didn’t fuck you the first time we met in Houston, but luckier that I didn’t fuck you the last time we met in San Francisco. this is the answer to your letter even though I don’t know if you’ll ever read it. the words are yours but I’ll get credit for the poem. you see, it could never have worked, the way I am. B.”