Charles Bukowski idézet

oldal 18

„Nem kerestem többé az álomlányt, csak olyat akartam, aki nem rémálom.”

„A valódi magányosság nem feltétlenül korlátozódik csak a puszta egyedüllétre.”

„Soha nem találkoztam olyan emberrel, aki inkább lennék. És még ha ez hazugság is, akkor szerencsés.”

„a legfontosabb az, hogy milyen jól mész át a tűzön”

„Úgy szerettelek, ahogy egy férfi szereti azt a nőt, akit soha nem érint meg, csak ír neki, és kis fényképeket őriz róla.”

„A világ megmentését azzal kell kedzdeni, hogy egyszerre egy embert mentünk meg; minden más grandiózus romantika vagy politika.”

„Az értelmes ember olyan ember, aki egy egyszerű dolgot is nehéz módon mond el; a művész pedig olyan ember, aki egyszerű módon modja el a nehéz dolgokat.”

„Olyan ember voltam, aki a magányban virágzott; nélküle olyan voltam, mint egy másik ember élelem és víz nélkül. Minden egyes nap a magány nélkül meggyengített. Nem voltam büszke a magányomra; de függő voltam tőle.”

„Ó, nem úgy értem, hogy jóképű vagy, nem úgy, ahogy az emberek gondolják a jóképűt. Az arcod kedvesnek tűnik. De a szemeid gyönyörűek. Vadak, őrültek, mint valami állat, amelyik a lángoló erdőből néz ki.”

„A szépség semmi, a szépség nem marad meg. Nem tudod, milyen szerencsés vagy, ha csúnya vagy, mert ha az emberek szeretnek, tudod, hogy az valami másért van.”

„Az élet olyan kedves, amenyire hagyod, hogy kedves legyen.”

„Azért vagyunk itt, hogy nevessünk az esélyeken, és annyira jól éljük az életünket, hogy a halál remegni fog, ha majd el kell vinnie minket.”

„Olyan volt, mint az élet és a nevetés kezdete. Ez volt a Nap igazi jelentése.”

„A legrosszabb kocsmákba mentem, remélve, hogy megölnek, de csak annyi történt, hogy megint berúgtam.”

„Milyen fárasztó évek voltak azok- vágyam és szükségem volt élni, de nem voltam rá képes.”

„Ha elveszted a lelked és tudod is azt, akkor még mindig van egy lelked, amit elveszíthetsz.”

„Az ambícióimat akadályozza a lustaság.”

„Néha kimászol az ágyból reggel és arra gondolsz, hogy nem fogom túlélni a napot. De legbelül nevetsz és eszedbe jut, hányszor éreztél már így.”

„A maszkkal az a baj, hogy soha nem változik.”

„Néha a két pont közötti legrövidebb távolság is elviselhetetlen.”

„A dolgok szinte állandóan mindannyiunknak rosszabbulnak, és amit állandó stressz alatt csinálunk, mutassa meg, hogy kik vagyunk valójában.”

„A költészet az, ami akkor történik, amikor semmi más nem képes.”

„Mind meghalunk egyszer, mindenki, micsoda cirkusz! Pont ennek kéne összetartania minket, de ez még sincs így. Jelentéktelen dolgok terrorizálnak és nyomnak el minket. Felemészt minket a semmi.”

„A szabad lélek ritka, de azonnal megismered, amikor meglátod - alapvetően azért, mert jól vagy nagyon jól érzed majd magad, amikor a közelében leszel.”

„A különbség a demokrácia és a diktatúra között az, hogy a demokráciában előbb szavaznak, aztán parancsolnak; a diktatúrában pedig nem vesztegetik az idejüket szavazással.”

„Ebben a világban a magány olyan nagy, hogy láthassuk az óra mutatója lassú mozgásában.”

„Néha csak a mosogatóba kell pisilni.”

„Emlékszem, hogy egy reggel felébredtem, és mindent az elfelejtett szerelem színével kenve találtam.”

„Egy ilyen szerelem súlyos betegség volt, olyan betegség, amelyből az ember soha nem épül fel teljesen.”

„Természetesen akkor is lehet szeretni egy embert, ha nem ismered túl jól.”

„Mindig van egy nő, aki megment egy másiktól, és ahogy ez a nő megment téged, úgy felkészül a pusztításra is.”

„A remek művészet lószar, vegyél inkabb tacót.”

„A rohadékok. Tessék, már jobban érzem magam. Istenverte emberi faj. Tessék már jobban érzem magam.”

„Még csak nem is boldogságot kérünk, csak egy kicsit kevesebb fájdalmat.”

„Unalmas átkozott emberek. Az egész földön. Unalmasabb átkozott emberek szaporítnak. Micsoda horror show. A föld hemzsegett tőlük.”

„Van, amikor azok a szemek az agyadban visszabámulnak rád.”

„Sörivó lelkem szomorúbb, mint a világ összes halott karácsonyfája.”

„És mégis, a nők - a jó nők - megijesztettek, mert végül a lelkedet akarták, és ami az enyémből megmaradt, azt meg akartam tartani.”

„Bébi, zseni vagyok, de ezt rajtam kívül senki sem tudja.”

„Olyanok vagyunk, mint a rózsák, amelyek soha nem vesződtek azzal, hogy virágozzanak, amikor virágozniuk kellett volna, és olyan, mintha a nap megundorodott volna a várakozástól.”

„A bal zsebemben hordom a halált. Néha előveszem és beszélek hozzá: Helló, bébi, hogy vagy? Mikor jössz értem? Készen állok.”

„A szerelem rendben van azok számára, akik képesek kezelni a pszichés túlterhelést. Olyan, mintha egy teli kukát próbálnál a hátadon átvinni egy zúduló vizeletfolyón.”

„Van, akinek tetszik, amit csinálsz, van, aki utálja, amit csinálsz, de a legtöbb embert egyszerűen nem érdekli.”

„Meg kell halnod néhányszor, mielőtt igazán élhetsz.”

“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.”