Charles Bukowski: Doing

Charles Bukowski was American writer. Explore interesting quotes on doing.
Charles Bukowski: 1110 quotes288 likes

“What's genius? I don't know but I do know that the difference between a madman and a professional is that a pro does as well as he can within what
he has set out to do and a madman does exceptionally well at what he can't help doing.”

Charles Bukowski

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

“To do a dull thing with style-now that's what I call art.”

Charles Bukowski

Variant: It's better to do a dull thing with style than a dangerous thing without it.

“When I begin to doubt my ability to work the word, I simply read another writer and know I have nothing to worry about. My contest is only with myself, to do it right, with power, and force, and delight, and gamble.”

Charles Bukowski

“That’s when I first learned that it wasn’t enough to just do your job, you had to have an interest in it, even a passion for it.”

Charles Bukowski

“I have one problem, I don’t hate people. They disgust me and I want to get away from them. I do not have hatred. I have an escape mechanism.”

Charles Bukowski

“and getting dressed we talk about what else there might be to do, but being together solves most of it, in fact, solves all of it”

Charles Bukowski book Mockingbird Wish Me Luck

Source: Mockingbird Wish Me Luck

“Everything is beautiful. We have all this beauty in the world and all we have to do is reach out and touch it, it is all there and all ours for the taking." -- Cecilia to Henry Chinaski, liberty taken changing past tense to present tense (173)”

Charles Bukowski book Women

Source: Women

“At the age of 25 most people were finished. A whole god-damned nation of assholes driving automobiles, eating, having babies, doing everything in the worst way possible, like voting for the presidential candidate who reminded them most of themselves.”

Charles Bukowski book Ham on Rye

Ham On Rye (1982)
Source: Ham on Rye
Context: The problem was you had to keep choosing between one evil or another, and no matter what you chose, they sliced a little more off you, until there was nothing left. At the age of 25 most people were finished. A whole goddamned nation of assholes driving automobiles, eating, having babies, doing everything in the worst way possible, like voting for the presidential candidate who reminded them most of themselves. I had no interests. I had no interest in anything. I had no idea how I was going to escape. At least the others had some taste for life. They seemed to understand something that I didn't understand. Maybe I was lacking. It was possible. I often felt inferior. I just wanted to get away from them. But there was no place to go.

“Sometimes a man doesn’t know what to do about things and sometimes it’s best to lie very still and try not to think at all about anything.”

Charles Bukowski

Source: Burning in Water, Drowning in Flame

“People don't do me much good.”

Charles Bukowski book Ham on Rye

Source: Ham on Rye

“Why do you insist upon destroying yourself?”

Charles Bukowski book Hollywood

Source: Hollywood

“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.”

Charles Bukowski book Women

Source: Women

“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.”

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

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

Charles Bukowski

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

“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