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

Discover the words of Charles Bukowski, a legendary writer known for his raw and honest perspective on life. From profound insights to biting sarcasm, delve into a collection of his most famous quotes that will challenge, inspire, and make you question the world around you.

Henry Charles Bukowski was a German-American poet, novelist, and short story writer who became known for his work that addressed the lives of poor Americans, writing, alcohol, relationships with women, and the monotony of work. He published extensively in small literary magazines and with small presses and wrote thousands of poems, hundreds of short stories, and six novels over the course of his career. Although he received little attention from academic critics in the United States during his lifetime, Bukowski gained popularity in Europe, particularly in Germany. He has since been the subject of numerous critical articles and books.

Bukowski was born in Germany to a German father and American mother. His family immigrated to Los Angeles when he was a child. Growing up, Bukowski faced abuse from his father and struggles with his appearance due to extreme acne. The Great Depression further fueled his rage as he witnessed economic hardships. In his early teens, Bukowski discovered alcohol as a coping mechanism. After quitting college at the start of World War II, he moved to New York City in hopes of becoming a writer. However, it wasn't until he was treated for a near-fatal bleeding ulcer in 1955 that he began seriously writing poetry. Over time, he formed relationships with various women that provided material for his stories and poems. In 1969 at age 49, Bukowski quit his job at the post office to dedicate himself full-time to writing after receiving an offer from Black Sparrow Press publisher John Martin. He continued to submit works to small independent presses throughout his career until his death from leukemia at the age of 73 in March 1994.

✵ 16. August 1920 – 9. March 1994  •  Other names Henry Charles Bukowski
Charles Bukowski photo
Charles Bukowski: 555 quotes288 likes

Charles Bukowski Quotes

“There is no hurry. Time means nothing
to you.”

Charles Bukowski

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

“Some nights I knew that if I slept I would die.”

Charles Bukowski book Hollywood

Source: Hollywood

“I was only photographing in words the reality of it all.”

Charles Bukowski book Betting on the Muse: Poems and Stories

Source: Betting on the Muse: Poems and Stories

“I paid, got up, walked
to the door, opened
it.

I heard the man
say, "that guy's
nuts."

out on the street I
walked north
feeling
curiously
honored.”

Charles Bukowski

Source: You Get So Alone at Times That it Just Makes Sense

“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.”

Charles Bukowski book Post Office

Source: Post Office (1971)

“It is possible to be truly mad and to still exist upon scraps of life.”

Charles Bukowski book Betting on the Muse: Poems and Stories

Source: Betting on the Muse: Poems and Stories

“young or old, good or bad, I don't think anything dies as slow and as hard as a writer.”

Charles Bukowski

Source: The Last Night of the Earth Poems

“Never get out of bed before noon.”

Charles Bukowski

“the price of creation
is never
too high.

the price of living
with other people
always
is.”

Charles Bukowski

Source: You Get So Alone at Times That it Just Makes Sense

“the beautiful are found in the edge of a room
crumpled into spiders and needles and silence
and we can never understand why they
left, they were so
beautiful.

they dont make it,
the beautiful die young
and leave the ugly to their ugly lives.”

Charles Bukowski

“the area dividing the brain and the soul
is affected in many ways by
experience –
some lose all mind and become soul:
insane.
some lose all soul and become mind:
intellectual.
some lose both and become:
accepted.”

Charles Bukowski

Variant: The area dividing the brain and the soul
Is affected in many ways by experience --
Some lose all mind and become soul:
insane.
Some lose all soul and become mind:
intellectual.
Some lose both and become:
accepted.
Source: You Get So Alone at Times That it Just Makes Sense

“and the color in my eyes
has gone back into the sea.”

Charles Bukowski

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

“I can
almost understand
why
people
leap
from
bridges.”

Charles Bukowski

“she slammed the door and
was gone.

I looked at the closed door
and at the doorknob
and strangely
I didn't feel
alone.”

Charles Bukowski

Source: You Get So Alone at Times That it Just Makes Sense

“Well, the rain had stopped but the pain was still there.”

Charles Bukowski book Pulp

Source: Pulp

“Great books are the ones we need”

Charles Bukowski

Source: The Last Night of the Earth Poems

“All our days are marked with/
unexpected/
affronts--some/
disastrous, others/
less so/
but the process is/
wearing and/
continuous./
Attrition rules./
Most give/
way/
leaving/
empty spaces/
where people should/
be.”

Charles Bukowski

“Why do we embroider everything we say

with special emphasis

when all we really need to do

is simply say what

needs to he said?

Of course

the fact is

that there is very little that needs

to be said.”

Charles Bukowski

Source: sifting through the madness for the word, the line, the way: New Poems

“I wasn’t going anywhere and neither was the rest of the world. We were all just hanging around waiting to die and meanwhile doing little things to fill the space. Some of use weren’t even doing little things. We were vegetables.”

Charles Bukowski

“I am not a snob; it is simply that I am not interested with what most people have to say, or what they want to do — mostly with my time.”

Charles Bukowski

“If something burns your soul with purpose and desire, it’s your duty to be reduced to ashes by it. Any other form of existence will be yet another dull book in the library of life.”

Charles Bukowski

“sometimes it's hard to know
what to
do.”

Charles Bukowski

Source: You Get So Alone at Times That it Just Makes Sense

“but isn't there always
one good thing
to look back on?

think of
how many cups of coffee we
drank together.”

Charles Bukowski

Source: Sifting Through the Madness for the Word, the Line, the Way

“Why did I come here? I thought. Why is it always only a matter of choosing between something bad and something worse?”

Charles Bukowski

“She had wild eyes, slightly insane. She also carried an overload of compassion that was real enough and which obviously cost her something.”

Charles Bukowski book Women

Source: Women

“I wish I were driving a blue 1952 Buick
or a dark blue 1942 Buick
or a blue 1932 Buick
over a cliff of hell and into the
sea.”

Charles Bukowski book Love Is a Dog from Hell

Source: Love Is a Dog from Hell

“To be young is the only religion.”

Charles Bukowski book Notes of a Dirty Old Man

Source: Notes of a Dirty Old Man

“I feel no grief for being called something
which
I am not;
in fact, it's enthralling, somehow, like a good
back rub”

Charles Bukowski

Source: You Get So Alone at Times That it Just Makes Sense

“I write as a function. Without it I would fall ill and die. It's as much a part of one as the liver or intestine, and just about as glamorous.”

Charles Bukowski

Source: Portions from a Wine-Stained Notebook: Uncollected Stories and Essays, 1944-1990

“my youth,
one time,
that time
I knew
even through the
nothingness,
it was a
celebration
of something not to
do
but only
know.”

Charles Bukowski

“…He was always high on drugs. I was not a drug man, but in case I wanted to hide from myself for a few days, I knew I could get anything I wanted from him.”

Charles Bukowski book Post Office

Source: Post Office

“There was nothing glorious about the life of a drinker or the life of a writer.”

Charles Bukowski book Hot Water Music

Source: Hot Water Music

“I just let it roll. Like a hot turd down a hill.”

Charles Bukowski

Source: The Captain is Out to Lunch and the Sailors Have Taken Over the Ship

“They were beautiful nothings”

Charles Bukowski book Ham on Rye

Source: Ham on Rye

“I always started a job with the feeling that I'd soon quit or be fired, and this gave ma a relaxex manner that was mistaken for intelligence or some secret power.”

Charles Bukowski book Factotum

Source: Factotum

“the gods seldom
give
but so quickly
take.”

Charles Bukowski

Source: You Get So Alone at Times That it Just Makes Sense

“I have loved you woman
as surely as I have named you
rust and sand and nylon.”

Charles Bukowski book The People Look Like Flowers at Last

Source: The People Look Like Flowers at Last

“And I said to myself that he was the first thing that I had ever missed in my life.”

Charles Bukowski book Hollywood

Source: Hollywood

“it is good to be sitting some place
in public at 2:30 in the afternoon
without getting the flesh ripped from
your bones.”

Charles Bukowski book The People Look Like Flowers at Last

Source: The People Look Like Flowers at Last

“Joan of Arc had style. Jesus had style.”

Charles Bukowski

“I have been treated better than I should have been---not by life in general nor by the machinery of things but by women.”

Charles Bukowski

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

“I am this fiery snail crawling home.”

Charles Bukowski

Source: Burning in Water, Drowning in Flame

“my 6 foot goddess
makes me laugh
the laughter of the mutilated
who still need
love…

she has saved me
from everything that is
not here”

Charles Bukowski book Love Is a Dog from Hell

Source: Love Is a Dog from Hell

“the masses are everywhere
they know how to do things:
they have sane and deadly angers
for sane and deadly
things.”

Charles Bukowski book Love Is a Dog from Hell

Source: Love Is a Dog from Hell

“we
sat there
smoking
cigarettes
at
5
in the morning.”

Charles Bukowski

Source: The Pleasures of the Damned