Charles Bukowski citations

Page 18

“Certaines personnes ne deviennent jamais fous. Quelle vie vraiment horrible ils doivent mener.”

“Quelle période de lassitude ont été ces années : avoir le désir et le besoin de vivre sans en avoir la capacité.”

“Le problème avec un masque est qu'il ne change jamais”

“l'hôpital, c'est le lieu où l'on s'efforce de vous tuer sans vous dire pourquoi. la cruauté glaciale et rationnelle de l'Hôpital américain ne s'explique pas que par un corps médical débordé, qui se serait habitué à la mort, au point de la trouver banale. mais surtout parce que les médecins, bien que TROP PAYES POUR N'EN BRANLER PAS UNE, sont adulés par les ignorants, à l'égal des sorciers avec leurs potions magiques, alors que, la plupart du temps, ils confondent les poils de leur cul avec du céleri rémoulade.”

“Balanos était doué — les bras de cet enculé étaient quasiment reptiliens, mais surtout il ne bougeait pas d'un pouce —, il savait s'effacer, s'esquiver, et il ne s'exposait pas davantage qu'une araignée maléfique. pour autant, chacun de ses coups portait et faisait mal. pour le battre, il aurait fallu un très grand champion. aussi Watson aurait-il mieux fait de reprendre son petit agneau et de rentrer chez lui.”

“à l'instar des commissions sur la pauvreté qui nous ont appris que des êtres humains mourraient de faim tout en bas de l'échelle sociale, viendront ensuite les commissions psychiatriques qui nous révèleront que d'autres êtres humains peuvent mourir tout en haut de cette même échelle; moyennant quoi, on pratiquera l'amnésie collective jusqu'à ce qu'on soit de nouveau secoués par un autre petit meurtre ou par l'incendie d'une ville; et alors, ils se rassembleront une fois de plus pour chier ces rapports qu'on attend d'ailleurs qu'ils nous chient, puis ils s'en laveront les mains et disparaîtront comme les étrons lorsqu'on tire la chasse d'eau. aussi longtemps que personne ne protestera, ils ne changeront pas de méthode.”

“Et puis tu regardes la vieille peau : sans dents, sans yeux, sans cervelle, sans âme, sans cul, sans bouche, sans couleur, sans nerfs, sans rien, rien qu'un bâton, et tu te demandes ce que son thé, ses biscuits, son église et son petit pavillon ont fait pour ELLE. Et les vieux se mettent parfois dans une colère noire contre les jeunes : « Bon sang, j'ai travaillé dur toute ma vie! » (Ils prennent le travail pour une vertu, mais ça prouve seulement qu'un type est taré).”

“La Constitution n'a jamais été conçue pour protéger les dégénérés.”

“Tout allait de travers. Les gens s’accrochaient aveuglément à la première bouée de sauvetage venue : le communisme, la diététique, le zen, le surf, la danse classique, l’hypnotisme, la dynamique de groupe, les orgies, le vélo, l’herbe, le catholicisme, les haltères, les voyages, le retrait intérieur, la cuisine végétarienne, l’Inde, la peinture, l’écriture, la sculpture, la musique, la profession de chef d’orchestre, les balades sac à dos, le yoga, la copulation, le jeu, l’alcool, zoner, les yaourts surgelés, Beethoven, Bach, Bouddha, le Christ, le H, le jus de carotte, le suicide, les costumes sur mesure, les voyages en avion, New York City, et soudain, tout se cassait la gueule, tout partait en fumée. Il fallait bien que les gens trouvent quelque chose à faire en attendant de mourir. Pour ma part, je trouvais plutôt sympa qu’on ait le choix.”

“La peste fréquente votre lieu de travail, quel qu'il soit. Je suis la proie des pestes. J'ai travaillé dans une boîte où il y avait un type qui ne parlait à personne depuis quinze ans. Le lendemain de mon arrivée, il m'a parlé pendant trente-cinq minutes. Il était complètement cinglé.”

“j'aime mieux qu'on me raconte la vie d'un clochard américain que celle d'un dieu grec mort.”

“la seule chose qui pourrait nous sauver serait d'inventer un nouveau concept, celui d'une Universelle et Vibratoire Education, qui engloberait de façon constructive le goût du bonheur, le sens de la réalité et la nécessité du changement, mais qui ne profiterait qu'à nos petits-enfants, à condition qu'ils n'aient pas été, dans l'intervalle, assassinés. mais ils le seront. je vous le parie à 25 contre 1, car nul concept nouveau ne saurait être toléré, vu qu'il signifierait la liquidation du gang au pouvoir.”

“quand les hommes contrôleront les gouvernements, ils n'auront plus besoin d'être gouvernés, mais, jusque-là, ils l'auront dans l'os.”

“Quand je suis arrivé à la Nouvelle-Orléans, j'ai fait gaffe de ne pas m'installer dans un bordel, bien que toute la ville me parût en être un.”

“Il est seulement jaloux. Il s'est fait enculer, on lui a piqué ses plus belles années. il meurt d'envie de baiser. S'il tient jusqu'au bout. Mais il peut plus. Donc, maintenant, il veut que les jeunes souffrent comme il a souffert.”

“« Relève-toi, Amérique », crie le peuple, mais on ne l'entend pas. Montre les dents. Rends coup pour coup. Que le lion montre ses dents, et les chacals s'enfuiront.”

“Les nouvelles circulent rapidement dans des endroits où il ne se passe jamais grand-chose.”

“I was still proud of that moment
back then
when Jed handed me
that pint
and
I drained
a third of it
with all the disciples
watching.
damn, there was no way
it seemed
we could ever
lose
but we did.

and it took me
3 or 4 decades to
move on just a
little.
and Jed,
if you are still here
tonight,
(I forgot to tell you
then)
here's a thanks
for that drink.”

“I think that everything should be made available to everybody, and I mean LSD, cocaine, codeine, grass, opium, the works. Nothing on earth available to any man should be confiscated and made unlawful by other men in more seemingly powerful and advantageous positions. More often than not Democratic Law works to the advantage of the few even though the many have voted; this, of course, is because the few have told them how to vote. I grow tired of 18th century moralities in a 20th century space-atomic age. If I want to kill myself I feel that should be my business. If I go out and hold up gas stations at night to pay for my supply it is because the law inflates a very cheap thing into an escalated war against my nerves and my soul.”

“Morals were restrictive, but they were grounded on human experience.”

“Money is like sex. It seems much more important when you don't have any…”

“Nothing was ever in tune. People just blindly grabbed at whatever there was: communism, health foods, zen, surfing, ballet, hypnotism, group encounters, orgies, biking, herbs, Catholicism, weight-lifting, travel, withdrawal, vegetarianism, India, painting, writing, sculpting, composing, conducting, backpacking, yoga, copulating, gambling, drinking, hanging around, frozen yogurt, Beethoven, Bach, Buddha, Christ, TM, H, carrot juice, suicide, handmade suits, jet travel, New York City, and then it all evaporated and fell apart. People had to find things to do while waiting to die. I guess it was nice to have a choice.”

“Something was always after a man. It never relented. No rest, ever.”

“It was the poor part of town—small houses and courts with mailboxes full of spiders, mailboxes hanging by one nail, old women inside rolling cigarettes and chewing tobacco and humming to their canaries and watching you, an idiot lost in the rain.”

“I thought about taking a shower but I could see the headlines: MAILMAN CAUGHT DRINKING THE BLOOD OF GOD AND TAKING A SHOWER, NAKED, IN A ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. …I found out later that mail for the church was delivered to the parish house around the corner. But now, of course, I knew where to… shower when I'm down and out.”

“I had first learned that I was an idiot in the school yard. I was taunted and poked at and jeered, as were the other one or two idiots. My only advantage over the other one or two, two idiots. My only advantage over the other one or two, who were beaten and chasen, was that I was sullen. When surrounded I was not terrified. They never attacked me but would finally turn on one of the others and beat them as I watched.”

“I'm no preacher but I can tell you this-the lives that people lead are driving them crazy and their insanity comes out in the way they drive.”

“Man was born to die. What did it mean? Hanging around and waiting. Waiting for the ‘A train.’ Waiting for a pair of big breasts on some August night in a Vegas hotel room. Waiting for the mouse to sing. Waiting for the snake to grow wings. Hanging around.”

“WHAT'S WRONG WITH ASSHOLES, BABY? YOU'VE GOT AN ASSHOLE, I'VE GOT AN ASSHOLE! YOU GO TO THE STORE AND BUY A PORTERHOUSE STEAK, THAT HAD AN ASSHOLE! ASSHOLES COVER THE EARTH! IN A WAY TREES HAVE ASSHOLES BUT YOU CAN'T FIND THEM, THEY JUST DROP THEIR LEAVES. YOUR ASSHOLE, MY ASSHOLE, THE WORLD IS FULL OF BILLIONS OF ASSHOLES. THE PRESIDENT HAS AN ASSHOLE, THE CARWASH BOY HAS AN ASSHOLE, THE JUDGE AND THE MURDERER HAVE ASSHOLES... EVEN THE PURPLE STICKINPIN HAS AN ASSHOLE!”

“But I couldn't help thinking, god, all these mailmen do is drop in letters and get laid. This is the job for me, oh yes yes yes.”

“… don't wait for the good woman. She doesn't exist. There are women who can make you feel more with their bodies and their souls but these are the exact women who will turn the knife into you right in front of the crowd. Of course, I expect this, but the knife still cuts. The female loves to play man against man, and if she is in a position to do it there is not one who will not resist. The male, for all his bravado and exploration, is the loyal one, the one who generally feels love. The female is skilled at betrayal. and torture and damnation. Never envy a man his lady. Behind it all lays a living hell.”

“"Wouldn't you like to come in and have a cup of tea and dry off?"
"Lady, don't you realize that we don't even have time to pull up our shorts?"
"Pull up your shorts?"
"YES, PULL UP OUR SHORTS!" I screamed at her and walked off into the wall of water.”

“"I've given you my time. It's all I've got to give - it's all any man has. And for a pitiful buck and a quarter an hour."… "my time so that you can live in your big house on the hill and have all the things that go with it. If anybody has lost anything on this deal, on this arrangement… I've been the loser.”

“It's 4:30 in the morning, it's always 4:30 in the morning.”

“there were these people
on the ground,
they were reaching up their
arms and trying to pull me
down
but
they couldn't do
it.

I felt like pissing on
them.
they were so
jealous.
all they had to do was
to work their way
slowly up to it
as I had
done.

such people think
success grows on
trees.

you and I,
we know
better.”

“Human relationships didn't work anyhow. Only the first two weeks had any zing, then the participants lost their interest. Masks dropped away and real people began to appear: cranks, imbeciles, the demented, the vengeful, sadists, killers. Modern society had created its own kind and they feasted on each other. It was a duel to the death--in a cesspool.”

“I walk through rooms of the dead, streets of the dead, cities of the dead: men without eyes, men without voices; men with manufactured feelings and standard reactions; men with newspaper brains, television souls and high school ideals.”

“Van Gogh writing his brother for paints
Hemingway testing his shotgun
Celine going broke as a doctor of medicine
the impossibility of being human
Shakespeare a plagiarist
Beethoven with a horn stuck into his head against deafness
the impossibility the impossibility
Nietzsche gone totally mad
the impossibility of being human
all too human
this breathing
in and out
out and in
these punks
these cowards
these champions
these mad dogs of glory
moving this little bit of light toward us
impossibly.”

“I found out that Hollywood is more crooked, dumber, crueler, stupider than all the books I've read about it. They didn't go deeply enough into how it lacks art, and soul, and heart— how it's really a piece of crap. There are too many hands directing, there're too many fingers in the pot, and they're all kind of ignorant about what they're doing. They're greedy, and they're vicious. So you don't get much of a movie.”

“a woman can
drop
out of your
life and
forget you
real fast.
a woman
can't go anywhere
but UP
after
leaving you,
honey.”

“The difference between a brave man and a coward is a coward thinks twice before jumping in the cage with a lion. The brave man doesn't know what a lion is. He just thinks he does.”

“Janeway Smithson was a little, insane, grey-haired bantam rooster of a man. He loaded five or six of us in one cab, and we rolled down to the bed of the L. A. River. Now in those days the L. A. River was a fake - there was no water, just a wide, flat, dry cement runway. The bums lived down there by the hundreds in little cement alcoves under the bridges and overpasses. Some of them even had potted plants in front of their places. All they needed to live like kings was canned heat (Sterno) and what they picked out of the nearby garbage dump. They were tan and relaxed and most of them looked a hell of a lot healthier than the average Los Angeles business man. Those guys down there had no problems with women, income tax, landlords, burial expenses, dentists, time payments, car repairs, or with climbing into a voting booth and pulling the curtain closed.”

“I didn't even have a uniform, just a cap. I wore my regular clothes. The way my shackjob Betty and I drank there was hardly money for clothes.”

“LSD, yeah, the big parade – everybody's doin' it now. Take LSD, then you are a poet, an intellectual. What a sick mob. I am building a machine gun in my closet now to take out as many of them as I can before they get me.”

“You have a very strange face," she said. "You're not really ugly." "Number four shipping clerk, working his way up." "Have you ever been in love?" "Love is for real people." "You sound real." "I dislike real people." "You dislike them?" "I hate them." We drank some more, not saying much. It continued to snow. Gertrude turned her head and stared into the crowd of people. Then she looked at me. "Isn't he handsome?" "Who?" "That soldier over there. He's sitting alone. He sits so straight. And he's got all his medals on.”

“If you want to know who your friends are, get yourself a jail sentence.”