Charles Bukowski: Thing (page 2)

“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.”

“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.”

“they simply never understand,
do they,
that sometimes solitude
is
one of the most beautiful
things
on earth?”

“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.”

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

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

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

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

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

“It's all overrated, man. Sex is only a great thing if you're not getting any.”

“I was getting depressed. My life wasn't going anywhere. I needed something, the flashing of lights, glamour, some damn thing. And here I was, talking to the dead. I finished my first drink. The second was ready.”

“Potential," I said, "doesn't mean a thing. You've got to do it. Almost every baby in a crib has more potential than I have.”

“I found the best thing
I could do
was just to type away
at my own work
and let the dying
die
as they always have.”

“where some god pissed a rain of
reason to make things grow
only to die”

“Genius could be the ability to say a profound thing in a simple way, or even to say a simple thing in a simpler way.”

“the courage it took to get out of bed each morning to face the same things over and over was enormous.”

“it's good to have things done with
when they don't work
it's also good not to hate
or even forget
the person you've failed with.”

“I guess we often get the deep blues, both of us, and wonder what it all means- the people, the buildings, the day by day things, the waste of time, of ourselves.”

“It’s when you hide things that you choke on them.”

“I know what a park bench is and the landlord's knock. There are only two things wrong with money: too much or too little.”