Quotes from Charles Bukowski

But before you kill something make sure you have something better to replace it with.

there are times when we should, remember, the strange courage, of the second-rate who refuse to quit, when the nights, are black and long and sleepless, and the days are without, end.

their lives full of canned, mutilated laughter.

Medju nama nije bilo nikakve veze, osim sto smo pili i vodili ljubav.

she didn't do anything unusual. I only wanted her to.

there's all that time to eat drink and wait on death like everybody else.

God, prayed my grandmother, purge the devil from this poor boy's body! Just look at all those sores! They make me sick, God! Look at them! It's the devil, God, dwelling in this boy's body. Purge the devil from his body, Lord! God, said my grandmother, why do you allow the devil to dwell inside this body's body? Don't you see how the devil is enjoying this? Look at these sores, 0 Lord, I am about to vomit just looking at them! They are red and big and full!

There is nothing worse than being broke and having your woman leave you. Nothing to drink, no job,just the walls, sitting there staring at the walls and thinking. That's how women got back at you, but it hurt and weakened them too. Or so I like to believe.

There was no sense to life, to the structure of things. D. H. Lawrence had known that.

there comes a time in each man's life when he must choose to stand or run. I choose to stand.

it's the dream that keeps you going then and now.

I stopped looking for a Dream Girl, I just wanted one that wasn't a nightmare. I don't hate people. I just feel better when they aren't around.

That way I wouldn't have to see the guys in their walking shorts. They looked as if nothing had ever touched them—all well-mothered, protected, with a soft sheen of contentment. None of them had ever been in jail, or worked hard with their hands, or even gotten a traffic ticket. Skimmed-milk jollies, the whole bunch.

De los millones de mujeres que ves, aparece de pronto una que te impresiona. Hay algo en sus formas, en cómo está hecha, en el vestido concreto que lleva, algo, a lo que no puedes sobreponerte.

The beginning of a relationship was always the easiest.

ah, christ, what a CREW: more poetry, always more POETRY

But we couldn't holler law because when you didn't have any money the law stopped working.

I was waiting for something extraordinary to happen but as the years wasted on nothing ever did, unless I caused it.

and you turn over to your left side to get the sun on your back and out of your eyes

It was con; my mind was blank; I only wanted a halfpint of Grandad and six or seven tall cool beers . . .

we don't need new governments new revolutions we don't need new men new women we don't need new ways we just need to care.

Ma l'aspetto positivo dell'essere un ubriacone è che non eri mai stitico. A volte pensavo al fegato, ma lui non parlava mai, non diceva mai: Smettila tu stai ammazzando me io ammazzerò te Se avessimo il fegato parlante non avremmo bisogno degli Alcolisti Anonimi.

That is what friendship means. Sharing the prejudice of experience

She was beginning to understand. Winners didn't shoot off their mouths. They were afraid of getting murdered in the parking lot. After the fourth race, a $22.80 winner, he turned again and told Katherine, "I had that one, ten across." She turned away. "His face is yellow, Hank. Did you see his eyes? He's sick." "He's sick on the dream. We're all sick on the dream, that's why we're out here.