Quotes from Charles Bukowski

Well, we lost it, and that's all there is to that.

I didn't say any more because when you hate, you don't beg...

they say that nothing is wasted: either that or it all is.

The shoulder blades sticking out as if they wanted to grow wings through that skin. Little blades, she was helpless.

I've got the sad sads all I want to do is fuck you.

if I had a book or a drink then I didn't think too much of other things—fools create their own paradise.

The free soul is rare, but you know it when you see it - basically because you feel goo, very good, when you are near or with them.

well, we all have our sharks, I'm sure, and there's only one way to get them off before they hack and nibble you to death— stop feeding them; they will find other bait; you fattened them the last dozen times around— now set them out to sea.

Hey, Hank, I notice all the women around your place lately ... good looking stuff; you're doing all right. Sam, I say, that's not true; I am one of God's most lonely men.

The only time a man needed a lot of women was when none of them were any good.

I would have loved you more if I had sat in a small room rolling a cigarette and listened to you piss in the bathroom, but that didn't happen.

The first children of my age that I knew were in kindergarten. They seemed very strange, they laughed and talked and seemed happy. I didn't like them.

Never bring a lot of money to where a poor man lives. He can only lose what little he has. On the other hand it is mathematically possible that he might win whatever you bring with you. What you must do, with money and the poor, is never let them get too close to one another.

Lady, how the hell do I know who you are or I am or anybody is?

I was glad I wasn't in love, that I wasn't happy with the world. I like being at odds with everything. People in love often become edgy, dangerous. They lose their sense of perspective. They lose their sense of humor. They become nervous, psychotic bores. They even become killers.

A man who can beat the horses can do anything he makes up his mind to do.

Lawyers, doctors, plumbers, they all made the money. writers? writers starved. writers suicided. writers went mad.

permanent living peace is permanent living death.

Some morals tended to keep people slaves in factories, in churches and true to the State. Other morals simply made good sense. It was like a garden filled with poisoned fruit and good fruit. You had to know which to pick and eat, which to leave alone.

i do not like to work and have no trade but i do like to eat, so this is basic, the basic training of slaves to fear...

The secret is writing down one simple line after another.

What do you do all day? I just stay in bed. That's awful. No, it's nice. I like it.

You know, doctor, wisdom comes at a hell of an hour—when youth is gone, the storm is over and the girls have gone home.

When someone else's truth is the same as your truth, and he seems to be saying it just for you, that's great.