Charles Bukowski: Trending quotes (page 7)

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“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.”

Charles Bukowski book Factotum

Source: Factotum (1975), Ch. 17
Context: I got into bed, opened the bottle, worked the pillow into a hard knot behind my back, took a deep breath, and sat in the dark looking out of the window. 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. I took a drink of wine.

Food , Solitude , Water , Dependency

“There are times when those eyes inside your brain stare back at you.”

Charles Bukowski

Source: What Matters Most is How Well You Walk Through the Fire

Time

“I never met another man I'd rather be. And even if that's a delusion, it's a lucky one.”

Charles Bukowski

in Bukowski: Born Into This (2002)
Variant: I've never met another man I'd rather be.

“The difference between a democracy and a dictatorship is that in a democracy you vote first and take orders later; in a dictatorship you don't have to waste your time voting”

Charles Bukowski
Democracy , Time

“I drive around the streets
an inch away from weeping,
ashamed of my sentimentality and
possible love.”

Charles Bukowski book Love Is a Dog from Hell

Source: Love Is a Dog from Hell

Love

“Love is all right 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.”

Charles Bukowski book Women

Variant: Love is all right 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.
Source: Women

Love

“each man's hell is in a different place:
mine is just up and behind
my ruined face.”

Charles Bukowski

Variant: each man's hell is in a different
place: mine is just up and
behind
my ruined
face.
--from Let's Make a Deal
Source: You Get So Alone at Times That it Just Makes Sense

Hell

“she is no longer
the beautiful woman
she was. she sends
photos of herself
sitting upon a rock
by the ocean
alone and damned.
I could have had
her once. I wonder
if she thinks I
could have
saved her?”

Charles Bukowski book Love Is a Dog from Hell

Source: Love Is a Dog from Hell

Beauty , Photo , Thinking

“It was like the beginning of life and laughter. It was the real meaning of the sun”

Charles Bukowski book Factotum

Source: Factotum

Life , Laughter , Sun

“the tigers have found me
and I do not care.”

Charles Bukowski

Variant: what you were
will not happen again.
the tigers have found me
and I do not care.

“Beauty is nothing, beauty won’t stay. You don’t know how lucky you are to be ugly, because if people like you, you know it’s for something else.”

Charles Bukowski book Tales of Ordinary Madness

Source: Tales of Ordinary Madness

People , Beauty

“Women were meant to suffer; no wonder they asked for constant declarations of love”

Charles Bukowski book Post Office

Post Office (1971)
Context: Fay had a spot of blood on the left side of her mouth and I took a wet cloth and wiped it off. Women were meant to suffer; no wonder they asked for constant declarations of love.

Love , Women , Suffering

“But most men, fortunately, aren't writers, or even cab drivers, and some men - many men - unfortunately aren't anything.”

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.

Men

“Maybe she hadn’t saved the world but she had made a major improvement.”

Charles Bukowski book Post Office

Post Office (1971)
Context: I squeezed Fay’s hand, kissed her on the forehead. She closed her eyes and seemed to sleep then. She was not a young woman. Maybe she hadn’t saved the world but she had made a major improvement. Ring one up for Fay.

World

“nobody can save you but yourself and you’re worth saving. it’s a war not easily won but if anything is worth winning then this is it.”

Charles Bukowski
War

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

Charles Bukowski

Source: The Roominghouse Madrigals: Early Selected Poems, 1946-1966

Way