Quotes from Charles Bukowski

I went from barrel to barrel. It was magic. Why hadn't someone told me? With this, life was great, a man was perfect, nothing could touch him.

roll the dice if you're going to try, go all the way. otherwise, don't get into it. if you're going to try, go all the way. this could mean losing girlfriends, wives, relatives, jobs and maybe your mind. go all the way. it could mean not eating for 3 or 4 days. it could mean freezing on a park bench. it could mean jail, alcoholism, it could mean derision, mockery, isolation.

La poesía dice demasiado en demasiado poco tiempo; la prosa dice demasiado poco y se toma demasiado tiempo.

the grass melting and yelling on the top of the ground and those smokesweet pictures of bluegray putting the whole sky out of place and all the while nobody saying anything just watching what the flames did like something busted out finally and having its say we all came together.

downers some people grind away making their unhappiness the ultimate factor of their existence until finally they are just automatically unhappy, their suspicious upset snarling selves grinding on and at and for and through their only relief being to meet another unhappy person or to create one.

the best at war finally are those who preach peace

Look, the reason is security, a subconscious need for security. I had a rotten childhood. Two bottles at once fills a void that needs filling. Maybe. I'm not sure.

The ocean," I said, "look at it out there, battering, crawling up and down. And underneath all that, the fish, the poor fish fighting each other, eating each other. We're like those fish, only we're up here. One bad move and you're finished.

There is nothing quite like the expectancy of the beginning writer, unless it is the conceit of the successful one.

Lady death was ecstatic, that's all, ecstatic. She looked truly beautiful all over.

The next thing I knew, I had a young girl from Texas on my lap. I won't go into details of how I met her. Anyway, there it was. She was 23. I was 36.

Money is like sex," I said. "It seems much more important when you don't have any…

mercy, I think, doesn't the human race know anything about mercy?

we finally got free of one another. it's sad but it's standard operating procedure (I am constantly confused by the lack of durability in human affairs).

Hicimos una parada para comprar licor, hielo y cigarrillos, luego regresamos al apartamento. Su única copa había puesto a Cecilia soltando risas y hablando sin parar. Ahora estaba explicándonos que los animales también tenían alma. Nadie se lo discutió. Era posible, lo sabíamos. De lo que no estábamos tan seguros era de si la teníamos nosotros.

THEN MY DESK phone rang and I awakened.

If I'm intelligent at all I will stay out of the woman game. But it's difficult. I had four years of perfect solitude and strength, and then one knocked on the door...

The flies are angry bits of life; why are they so angry? it seems they want more, it seems almost as if they are angry that they are flies; it is not my fault; I sit in the room with them and they taunt me with their agony; it is as if they were loose chunks of soul left out of somewhere;

I'm not usually good, but when i am, i'm goddamn good.

La inmensa mayoría de la gente estaba loca. Y los que no estaban locos estaban furiosos. Y los que no estaban locos ni furiosos eran idiotas. No tenía escapatoria.

There was something to be learned about writing from watching boxing matches or going to the racetrack. The message wasn't clear but it helped me. That was the important part: the message wasn't clear. It was wordless, like a house burning, or an earthquake or a flood, or a woman getting out of a car, showing her legs. I didn't know what other writers needed; I didn't care, I couldn't read them anyway. I was locked into my own habits

we are the sickest of the breed--as fine museums--great art-- generations of knowledge--are all forgotten as we find profundity in being an asshole--

Youth, you son of a bitch, where did you go?

if you get married they think you're finished and if you are without a woman they think you're incomplete.