Charles Bukowski: Trending quotes (page 8)

“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 wasn't a misanthrope and I wasn't a misogynist but I liked being alone. It felt good to sit alone in a small space and smoke and drink. I had always been good company for myself.”

“writers are desperate people and when they stop being desperate they stop being writers.”

“I had noticed that both in the very poor and very rich extremes of society the mad were often allowed to mingle freely.”

“Any asshole can chase a skirt, art takes discipline.”

“whiskey makes the heart beat faster
but it sure doesn't help the
mind and isn't it funny how you can ache just
from the deadly drone of
existence?”

“Learn, he says, that there will be hours, days
and months ahead of feeling absolutely terrible
and nothing can change that; neither new
girlfriends, health professionals, changes of diet, dope, humility, or
God.”

“to fight for each minute is to
fight for what is possible within
yourself,
so that your life and your death
will not be like
theirs.”

“and then there are some who
believe that old
relationships can be
revived and made new
again.

but please
if you feel that way

don't phone
don't write
don't arrive”

“It was a joy! Words weren't dull, words were things that could make your mind hum. If you read them and let yourself feel the magic, you could live without pain, with hope, no matter what happened to you.”

“The more crap you believe, the better off you are.”

“Now something so sad has hold of us that the breath leaves and we can't even cry.”

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

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

“they thought I had guts
they were wrong
I was only frightened of
more important things”

“I suppose like others
I have come through fire and sword,
love gone wrong,
head-on crashes, drunk at sea,
and I have listened to the simple sound of water running
in tubs
and wished to drown”

“the writing of some
men
is like a vast bridge
that carries you
over
the many things
that claw and tear.

The Wine of Forever”

“Those faces you see every day on the streets were not created entirely without hope: be kind to them: like you they have not escaped.”

“The crazy ones only laugh when there is no reason to laugh.”