
“That's your response to everything: drink?"
"No, that's my response to nothing.”
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Charles Bukowski 555
American writer 1920–1994Related quotes


Part 4, Chapter 1, III
Being and Nothingness (1943)
Context: I am responsible for everything … except for my very responsibility, for I am not the foundation of my being. Therefore everything takes place as if I were compelled to be responsible. I am abandoned in the world … in the sense that I find myself suddenly alone and without help, engaged in a world for which I bear the whole responsibility without being able, whatever I do, to tear myself away from this responsibility for an instant.
1960s
Source: 'A period of Exploration', McChesney, as quoted in The New York school – the painters & sculptors of the fifties, Irving Sandler, Harper & Row, Publishers, 1978, p 35

As reported by David Ashley (1995) and quoted in Brother Number One (1999) by David P. Chandler
Attributed

Speech to the Zurich Economic Society “The New Renaissance” (14 March 1977) http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/103336
Leader of the Opposition
Context: In our philosophy the purpose of the life of the individual is not to be the servant of the State and its objectives, but to make the best of his talents and qualities. The sense of being self-reliant, of playing a role within the family, of owning one's own property, of paying one's way, are all part of the spiritual ballast which maintains responsible citizenship, and provides the solid foundation from which people look around to see what more they might do, for others and for themselves. That is what we mean by a moral society; not a society where the State is responsible for everything, and no-one is responsible for the State.

“The blood that is spilling is not my responsibility. It is the responsibility of Mrs. 'No.”
"Quotation of the day" http://www.nytimes.com/1982/05/23/nyregion/quotation-of-the-day-157473.html, The New York Times (May 23, 1982)