Charles Bukowski

“BewareThose WhoAre ALWAYSREADINGBOOKS”

“and love was lightning and remembrance”

“so it's always a process of letting go, one way or another”

“I can't blame her. butwonder why she's here with me? where are the other guys? how can you be lucky? having someone theothers have abandoned?”

“my 6 foot goddessmakes me laughthe laughter of the mutilatedwho still needlove...she has saved mefrom everything that isnot here”

“be it peace or happinesslet it enfold you”

“my mother, poor fish,wanting to be happy, beaten two or three times aweek, telling me to be happy: "Henry, smile!why don't you ever smile?"and then she would smile, to show me how, and it was thesaddest smile I ever saw”

“Some people like what you do, some people hate what you do, but most people simply don’t give a damn.”

“I was only photographing in words the reality of it all.”

“It is possible to be truly mad and to still exist upon scraps of life.”

“He asked, "What makes a man a writer?" "Well," I said, "it's simple. You either get it down on paper, or jump off a bridge.”

“I never felt right being alone; sometimes it felt good but it never felt right.”

“being alone never felt right. sometimes it felt good, but it never felt right.”

“Fiction is an improvement on life”

“they thought I had gutsthey were wrongI was only frightened ofmore important things”

“(You can shoot a barracuda between the eyes and it won't go to hell because it doesn't know where or what hell is...)”

“They, all of them, seemed to put literary form in front of the actuality and living of life itself.”

“It's just that the grape has me down.”

“Sweet Christ, you must know that a man will go further for any poem than for any woman ever born.”

“When Ginsburg is at the top of his game you might as well put down your toys and listen.”

“beware the average man the average woman beware their love, their love is average seeks average but there is genius in their hatred there is enough genius in their hatred to kill you to kill anybody not wanting solitude not understanding solitude they will attempt to destroy anything that differs from their own not being able to create art they will not understand art they will consider their failure as creators only as a failure of the world”

“New Year's Eve always terrifies me.”

“I am this fiery snail crawling home.”

“It was the first time i had been alone for five days. I was a man who thrived on solitude; without it I was like another man without food or water. Each day without solitude weakened me. I took no pride in my solitude; but I was dependent on it. The darkness of the room was like sunlight to me.”

“You can’t beat death butyou can beat death in life, sometimes.and the more often you learn to do it,the more light there will be.your life is your life.know it while you have it.”

“The fuckers. There, I feel better. God-damned human race. There, I feel better.”

“I stopped looking for a Dream Girl, I just wanted one that wasn't a nightmare.”

“It was better for me when I could imagine greatness in others, even if it wasn't always there.”

“There is nothing that teaches you more than regroupingafter failure and moving on. Yet most people are stricken withfear. They fear failure so much that they fail. They are tooconditioned, too used to being told what to do. It begins withthe family, runs through school and goes into the businessworld.”

“It's a f*** you world. Well, keep it going anyhow, what the hell.”

“Capitalism has survived communism. Now, it eats away at itself.”

“In my next life I want to be a cat. To sleep 20 hours a day and wait to be fed. To sit around licking my ass.”

“few writers like other writers' works. The only time they like them is when they are dead or if they have been for a long time. Writers only like to sniff their own turds. I am one of those. I don't even like to talk to writers, look at them or worse, listen to them. And the worst is to drink with them, they slobber all over themselves, really look piteous, look like they are searching for the wing of the mother.I'd rather think about death than about other writers. Far more pleasant.”

“There's nothing to stop a man from writing unless that manstops himself. If a man truly desires to write, then he will.Rejection and ridicule will only strengthen him. And the longerhe is held back the stronger he will become, like a mass of risingwater against a dam. There is no losing in writing, it will make your toes laughas you sleep, it will make you stride like a tiger, it will firethe eye and put you face to face with death. You will die a fighter, you will be honored in hell. The luck of the word. Go with it, send it.”

“I just let it roll. Like a hot turd down a hill.”

“I can never drive my car over a bridge without thinking of suicide.I can never look at a lake or an ocean without thinking of suicide.”

“Most people are not ready for death, theirs or anybody elses.”

“I feel strangely normal.”

“But my whole life has been a matter of fighting for one simple hour to do what I want to do. There was always something getting in the way of my getting to myself.”

“There's a small balcony here, the door is open and I can see the lights ofthe cars on the Harbor Freeway south, they never stop, that roll of lights, on and on.All those people. What are they doing? What are they thinking? We're allgoing to die, all of us, what a circus! That alone should make us love each other but it doesn't.”

“Some people have written that my writing has helped them go on.It has helped me too. The writing, the roses, the 9 cats.”

“I know what a park bench is and the landlord's knock. There are only two things wrong with money: too much or too little.”

“Love is a form of prejudice. You love what you need, you love what makes you feel good, you love what is convenient. How can you say you love one person when there are ten thousand people in the world that you would love more if you ever met them? But you'll never meet them.”

“I wish I were driving a blue 1952 Buickor a dark blue 1942 Buickor a blue 1932 Buickover a cliff of hell and into thesea.”

“I'm too careless. I don't put out enough effort. I'm tired.”

“there's no release, just gurus and self- appointed gods and hucksters. the more people say, the less there is to say.”

“I was drawn to all the wrong things: I liked to drink, I was lazy, I didn't have a god, politics, ideas, ideals. I was settled into nothingness; a kind of non-being, and I accepted it. I 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.”

“I've never been lonely. I've been in a room -- I've felt suicidal. I've been depressed. I've felt awful -- awful beyond all -- but I never felt that one other person could enter that room and cure what was bothering me...or that any number of people could enter that room. In other words, loneliness is something I've never been bothered with because I've always had this terrible itch for solitude. It's being at a party, or at a stadium full of people cheering for something, that I might feel loneliness. I'll quote Ibsen, "The strongest men are the most alone." I've never thought, "Well, some beautiful blonde will come in here and give me a fuck-job, rub my balls, and I'll feel good." No, that won't help. You know the typical crowd, "Wow, it's Friday night, what are you going to do? Just sit there?" Well, yeah. Because there's nothing out there. It's stupidity. Stupid people mingling with stupid people. Let them stupidify themselves. I've never been bothered with the need to rush out into the night. I hid in bars, because I didn't want to hide in factories. That's all. Sorry for all the millions, but I've never been lonely. I like myself. I'm the best form of entertainment I have. Let's drink more wine!”

“the way to create art is to burn and destroyordinary concepts and to substitute themwith new truths that run down from the top of the headand out of the heart”

“Music is much like fucking, but some composers can't climax and others climax too often, leaving themselves and the listener jaded and spent.”