Charles Bukowski: Trending quotes (page 6)

“it's colder than hell (yes) but
the blankets are thin,
and the pulled-down shades
are as full of holes as love is.”

Charles Bukowski book The People Look Like Flowers at Last

Source: The People Look Like Flowers at Last

Love , Hell

“Not everybody thought they could be a dentist or an automobile mechanic but everybody knew they could be a writer.”

Charles Bukowski book Factotum

Source: Factotum (1975), Ch. 73
Context: There were always men looking for jobs in America. There were always all these usable bodies. And I wanted to be a writer. Almost everybody was a writer. Not everybody thought they could be a dentist or an automobile mechanic but everybody knew they could be a writer. Of those fifty guys in the room, probably fifteen of them thought they were writers. Almost everybody used words and could write them down, i. e., almost everybody could be a writer. But most men, fortunately, aren't writers, or even cab drivers, and some men - many men - unfortunately aren't anything.

“what matters most is how well you walk through the fire”

Charles Bukowski

Moving On

“An intellectual is a man who says a simple thing in a difficult way; an artist is a man who says a difficult thing in a simple way.”

Charles Bukowski book Notes of a Dirty Old Man

Notes of a Dirty Old Man (1969)

Way

“Real loneliness is not necessarily limited to when you are alone.”

Charles Bukowski

Loneliness

“I loved you like a man loves a woman he never touches, only writes to, keeps little photographs of.”

Charles Bukowski book Love Is a Dog from Hell

Source: Love Is a Dog from Hell

Love

“Boring damned people. All over the earth. Propagating more boring damned people. What a horror show. The earth swarmed with them.”

Charles Bukowski

People

“The free soul is rare, but you know it when you see it - basically because you feel good, very good, when you are near or with them.”

Charles Bukowski book Tales of Ordinary Madness

Tales of ordinary madness (1967-83)
Variant: .. the free soul is rare, but you know it when you see it - basically because you feel good, very good, when you are near or with them...
Source: Tales of Ordinary Madness

Feeling , Soul

“There's a bluebird in my heart that wants to get out
but I'm too tough for him,
I say, stay in there, I'm not going to let anybody see you.”

Charles Bukowski

Bluebird
The Last Night of the Earth Poems (1992)
Context: there's a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I'm too tough for him,
I say, stay in there, I'm not going
to let anybody see you.
... I only let him out
at night sometimes
when everybody's asleep.
... he's singing a little
in there, I haven't quite let him
die
... and it's nice enough to
make a man
weep, but I don't
weep, do
you?