Charles Bukowski Quotes

page 6

554 Quotes for Challenging, Inspiring, and Questioning Life's Perspectives

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

“I mean, say that you figure that everything is senseless, then it can't be quite senseless because you are aware that it's senseless and your awareness of senselessness almost gives it sense. You
know what I mean?”

“and even the trees we walked
under
seemed
less than
trees
and more like everything
else.”

“Any damn fool can beg up some kind of job; it takes a wise man to make it without working.”

“Why do you insist upon destroying yourself?”

“the psyche has been burned
and left us senseless,
the world has been darker than lights-out
in a closet full of hungry bats,
and the whiskey and wine entered our veins
when blood was too weak to carry on”

“I often stood in front of the mirror alone, wondering how ugly a person could get.”

“As a recluse I couldn't bear traffic. It had nothing to do with jealousy, I simply disliked people, crowds, anywhere, except at my readings. People diminished me, they sucked me dry.”

“There is a loneliness in this world so great that you can see it in the slow movement of the hands of a clock. People so tired, mutilated either by love or no love.”

“I could read the great books but the great books don't interest me.”

“I just want a hot cup of coffee, black, and I don’t want to hear about your troubles.”

“True revolution comes from true revulsion; when things get bad enough the kitten will kill the lion.”

“pain is absurd because it exists, nothing more.”

“she wasn't very
interesting
but few people
are.”

“girls
please give your
bodies and your
lives
to
the young men
who
deserve them

besides
there is
no way
I would welcome
the
intolerable
dull
senseless hell
you would bring
me

and
I wish you
luck
in bed
and
out

but not
in
mine

thank
you.”

“I heard an airplane passing overhead. I wished I was on it.”

“Love is a form of prejudice. I have too many other prejudices.”

“They laughed. Things were funny. They weren't afraid to care. There was no sense to life, to the structure of things.”

“people see so many movies that when they finally see one not so bad as the others, they think it's great. an Academy Award means that you don't stink quite as much as your cousin.”

“And there I was, 225 pounds, perpetually lost and confused, short legs, ape-like upper body, all chest, no neck, head too large, blurred eyes, hair uncombed, 6 feet of geek, waiting for her.”

“as the spirit wanes the form appears”

“I held her
wrists and then I got it through the eyes: hatred,
centuries deep and true. I was wrong and graceless and
sick. all the things I had learned had been wasted.
there was no creature living as foul as I
and all my poems were
false.”

“there's no clarity.
there was never meant to be clarity.”

“the whole world is caught in her glance
and at last
the universe is
magnificent.”

“You just rebel against everything. How are you going to survive?

I don't know. I'm already tired.”

“there is moss on the walls
and the stain of thought and failure and
waiting”

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

“but right now
it's Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan Bob
Dylan all the
way.”

“Sometimes I get too exhausted
to even feel bad”

“she knew what she wanted and it wasn't / me. / I know more women like that than any / other kind.”

“It was like a church in there as only the truly lost sit in bars on Tuesday mornings at 8:00 a. m.”

“You can’t beat death but
you 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.”

“take a writer away from his typewriter
and all you have left
is
the sickness
which started him
typing
in the
beginning”

“escape from the black widow spider
is a miracle as great as art.
what a web she can weave
slowly drawing you to her
she'll embrace you
then when she's satisfied
she'll kill you
still in her embrace
and suck the blood from you.”

“Her one drink had Cecelia giggling and talking and she was explaining that animals had souls too. Nobody challenged her opinion. It was possible, we knew. What we weren't sure of was if we had any.”

“Most people are much better at saying things in letters than in conversation, and some people can write artistic, inventive letters, but when they try a poem or story or novel they become pretentious.”

“I made practice runs down to skid row to get ready for my future.”

“there was something about
that city, though
it didn't let me feel guilty
that I had no feeling for the
things so many others
needed.
it let me alone.”

“lay down. lay down like an animal and wait.”

“When you drank the world was still out there, but for the moment it didn't have you by the throat.”

“You gotta find what you like and let it kill you.”

“like the fox
I run with the hunted
and if I’m not
the happiest man
on earth
I’m surely the
luckiest man
alive.”

“If you want to create, you'll create…”

“There is only one place to write and that is alone at a typewriter. The writer who has to go into the streets is a writer who does not know the streets… when you leave your typewriter you leave your machine gun and the rats come pouring through.”

“I am not like
other people.
I am
burning in hell. the hell of
myself.”

“t was almost disappointing because it seemed when stress and madness were eliminated from my daily life there wasn't much left you could depend on.”

“it does seem
the more we drink
the better the words
go.”

“I am a series of small victories and large defeats.”

“The blankets had fallen off and I stared down at her white back, the shoulder blades sticking out as if they wanted to grow into wings, poke through that skin. Little blades. She was helpless.”