Quotes from Charles Bukowski

the tired sunsets and the tired people - it takes a lifetime to die and no time at all.

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.

I don't know about other people, but when I wake up in the morning and put my shoes on, I think, Jesus Christ, now what?

the courage it took to get out of bed each morning to face the same things over and over was enormous.

the best often die by their own hand just to get away, and those left behind can never quite understand why anybody would ever want to get away from them

It was better for me when I could imagine greatness in others, even if it wasn't always there.

It's better to do a dull thing with style than a dangerous thing without it.

There is nothing that teaches you more than regrouping after failure and moving on. Yet most people are stricken with fear. They fear failure so much that they fail. They are too conditioned, too used to being told what to do. It begins with the family, runs through school and goes into the business world.

The more crap you believe, the better off you are.

I will remember your small room, the feel of you, the light in the window, your records, your books, our morning coffee, our noons, our nights, our bodies spilled together, sleeping, the tiny flowing currents, immediate and forever. Your leg, my leg, your arm, my arm, your smile and the warmth of you who made me laugh again.

Some people like what you do, some people hate what you do, but most people simply don't give a damn.

Those faces you see every day on the streets were not created entirely without hope: be kind to them: like you they have not escaped.

The best thing about the bedroom was the bed. I liked to stay in bed for hours, even during the day with covers pulled up to my chin. It was good in there, nothing ever occurred in there, no people, nothing.

they thought I had guts they were wrong I was only frightened of more important things

I suppose like others I have come through fire and sword, love gone wrong, head-on crashes, drunk at sea, and I have listened to the simple sound of water running in tubs and wished to drown

I wasn't much of a petty thief. I wanted the whole world or nothing.

I've had so many knives stuck into me, when they hand me a flower I can't quite make out what it is. It takes time.

the history of melancholia includes all of us.

The crazy ones only laugh when there is no reason to laugh.

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.

the writing of some men is like a vast bridge that carries you over the many things that claw and tear. The Wine of Forever

it seemed to me that I had never met another person on earth as discouraging to my happiness as my father. and it appeared that I had the same effect upon him.

animals never worry about Heaven or Hell. neither do I. maybe that's why we get along

There are only two things wrong with money: too much or too little.