“I walked around the block twice, passed 200 people and failed to see a human being.”
Charles Bukowski book Tales of Ordinary Madness
Source: Tales of Ordinary Madness

Tales of Ordinary Madness is one of two collections of short stories by Charles Bukowski that City Lights Publishers culled from its 1972 paperback volume Erections, Ejaculations, Exhibitions, and General Tales of Ordinary Madness. . Both volumes were first published in 1983 and remain in print.
“I walked around the block twice, passed 200 people and failed to see a human being.”
Charles Bukowski book Tales of Ordinary Madness
Source: Tales of Ordinary Madness
Charles Bukowski book Tales of Ordinary Madness
Variant: I felt like crying but nothing came out. it was just a sort of sad sickness, sick sad, when you can't feel any worse. I think you know it. I think everybody knows it now and then. but I think I have known it pretty often, too often.
Source: Tales of Ordinary Madness
“bad writing's like bad women: there's just not much you can do about it”
Charles Bukowski book Tales of Ordinary Madness
Source: Tales of Ordinary Madness
Charles Bukowski book Tales of Ordinary Madness
Tales of ordinary madness (1967-83)
Variant: .. the free soul is rare, but you know it when you see it - basically because you feel good, very good, when you are near or with them...
Source: Tales of Ordinary Madness
“I'm not the cruel type, but they are, and that's the secret.”
Charles Bukowski book Tales of Ordinary Madness
Source: Tales of Ordinary Madness