Quotes from book
Ham on Rye

Name: Ham on Rye
Author: Charles Bukowski

Ham on Rye is a 1982 semi-autobiographical novel by American author and poet Charles Bukowski. Written in the first person, the novel follows Henry Chinaski, Bukowski’s thinly veiled alter ego, during his early years. Written in Bukowski’s characteristically straightforward prose, the novel tells of his coming-of-age in Los Angeles during the Great Depression.

“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.

“well, i don't know about you but I'm going to try everything! War, women, travel, marriage, children, the works. […]. I want to know about things, what makes them work!”

Charles Bukowski book Ham on Rye

Source: Ham on Rye

“What a weary time those years were -- to have the desire and the need to live but not the ability.”

Charles Bukowski book Ham on Rye

Source: Ham on Rye

“I guess the only time most people think about injustice is when it happens to them.”

Charles Bukowski book Ham on Rye

Source: Ham on Rye

“First paycheck I get, I thought, I'm going to get myself a room near the downtown L. A. Public Library.”

Charles Bukowski book Ham on Rye

Source: Ham on Rye

“I made practice runs down to skid row to get ready for my future.”

Charles Bukowski book Ham on Rye

Source: Ham on Rye

“So, that’s what they wanted: lies. Beautiful lies. That’s what they needed. People were fools. It was going to be easy for me.”

Charles Bukowski book Ham on Rye

Source: Ham on Rye

“People don't do me much good.”

Charles Bukowski book Ham on Rye

Source: Ham on Rye

“It was a joy! Words weren't dull, words were things that could make your mind hum. If you read them and let yourself feel the magic, you could live without pain, with hope, no matter what happened to you.”

Charles Bukowski book Ham on Rye

Source: Ham on Rye

“since some people had told me that I was ugly, I always preferred shade to the sun, darkness to light”

Charles Bukowski book Ham on Rye

Source: Ham on Rye

“It seemed better to delay thinking.”

Charles Bukowski book Ham on Rye

Source: Ham on Rye

“You are thirty minutes late."
"Yes."
"Would you be thirty minutes late to a wedding or a funeral?"
"No."
"Why not, pray tell?"
"Well, if the funeral was mine I'd have to be on time. If the wedding was mine it would be my funeral.”

Charles Bukowski book Ham on Rye

Source: Ham on Rye

“Was I the only person who was distracted by this future without a chance?”

Charles Bukowski book Ham on Rye

Source: Ham on Rye

“All a guy needed was a chance. Somebody was alway controlling who got a chance and who didn't.”

Charles Bukowski book Ham on Rye

Source: Ham on Rye

“I was an Agnostic. Agnostics didn't have much to argue about.”

Charles Bukowski book Ham on Rye

Source: Ham on Rye

“Turgenev was a very serious fellow but he could make me laugh because a truth first encountered can be very funny. When someone else's truth is the same as your truth, and he seems to be saying it just for you, that's great.”

Charles Bukowski book Ham on Rye

Source: Ham on Rye

“I had noticed that both in the very poor and very rich extremes of society the mad were often allowed to mingle freely.”

Charles Bukowski book Ham on Rye

Source: Ham on Rye

“Fiction is an improvement on life”

Charles Bukowski book Ham on Rye

Source: Ham on Rye

“I often stood in front of the mirror alone, wondering how ugly a person could get.”

Charles Bukowski book Ham on Rye

Source: Ham on Rye

“Everything else just kept picking and picking, hacking away. And nothing was interesting, nothing. The people were restrictive and careful, all alike. And I've got to live with these fuckers for the rest of my life, I thought.”

Charles Bukowski book Ham on Rye

Ham On Rye (1982)
Source: Ham on Rye
Context: And my own affairs were as bad, as dismal, as the day I had been born. The only difference was that now I could drink now and then, though never often enough. Drink was the only thing that kept a man from feeling forever stunned and useless. Everything else just kept picking and picking, hacking away. And nothing was interesting, nothing. The people were restrictive and careful, all alike. And I've got to live with these fuckers for the rest of my life, I thought. God, they all had assholes and sexual organs and their mouths and their armpits. They shit and they chattered and they were dull as horse dung. The girls looked good from a distance, the sun shining through their dresses, their hair. But get up close and listen to their minds running out of their mouths, you felt like digging in under a hill and hiding out with a tommy-gun. I would certainly never be able to be happy, to get married, I could never have children. Hell, I couldn't even get a job as a dishwasher.