Charles Bukowski: Trending quotes (page 2)

“Sometimes I felt that I didn’t even know who I was. All right, I’m Nicky Belane. But check this. Somebody could yell out, ‘Hey, Harry! Harry Martel!’ and I’d most likely answer, ‘Yeah, what is it?’ I mean, I could be anybody, what does it matter?”

“Look, you're small-town. I've had over 50 jobs, maybe a hundred. I've never stayed anywhere long. What I am trying to say is, there is a certain game played in offices all over America. The people are bored, they don't know what to do, so they play the office-romance game. Most of the time it means nothing but the passing of time. Sometimes they do manage to work off a screw or two on the side. But even then, it is just an offhand pasttime, like bowling or t. v. or a New Year's Eve party. You've got to understand that it doesn't mean anything and then you won't get hurt. Do you understand what I mean?”

“well, i don't know about you but I'm going to try everything! War, women, travel, marriage, children, the works. […]. I want to know about things, what makes them work!”

“I don't know if this is true to you but for me
sometimes it gets so bad
that anything else
say like
looking at a bird on an overhead
power line
seems as great as a Beethoven symphony.
then you forget it and you're back
again.”

“Love breaks my
bones and I
laugh”

“For those who believe in God, most of the big questions are answered. But for those of us who can't readily accept the God formula, the big answers don't remain stonewritten. We adjust to new conditions and discoveries. We are pliable. Love need not be a command or faith a dictum. I am my own God. We are here to unlearn the teachings of the church, state and our educational system. 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.”

“I don't know. It's been terribly hard for me. How do I know you won't do it again?'
'Nobody is ever quite sure of what they will do. You aren't sure what you might do.”

“I went to the worst of bars hoping to get killed but all I could do was to get drunk again.”

“I will always carry you, inside, outside, on my fingertips, and at brain edges.”

“She's mad, but she's magic. There's no lie in her fire.”

“I'm tired of waiting to die. Let's go out.”

“Do some living and get yourself a typewriter.”

“I thought you were sane," I said, "but you're
just as crazy as the rest of them.”

“Her eyes always had a frantic, lost look. He could never cure her eyes of that.”

“one can never be sure whether it's good poetry or bad acid”

“I want to be with you. It's as simple, and as complicated as that.”

“If you're losing your soul and you know it, then you've still got a soul left to lose.”

“I am too sick to lay down
the sidewalks frighten me
the whole damned city frightens me,
what I will become
what I have become
frightens me.”

“People with no morals often considered themselves more free, but mostly they lacked the ability to feel hate or love.”