Quotes from Charles Bukowski

The problem was you had to keep choosing between one evil or another, and no matter what you chose, they sliced a little bit more off you, until there was nothing left. At the age of 25 most people were finished. A whole god-damned 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. I

There are certainly any number of lonely people without much to do with their nights.

Any damn fool can beg up some kind of job; it takes a wise man to make it without working. Out here we call it 'hustling.' I'd like to be a good hustler.

I just sit here and look at my hands. It is one of my better evenings. Yesterday I was very depressed.

also, the oldest notion still in vogue is that if you can't understand a poem then it almost certainly is a good one.

Scopare la mente di una donna è vizio da raffinati intenditori, tutti gli altri si accontentano del corpo.

Nobody bother us, we bother nobody.

So," said Sarah, "those are your readers?" "That's most of them, I think." "Don't any intelligent people read you?" "I hope so.

Siempre es bueno saber que puedes vivir sin una persona sin la que pensabas que nunca serías capaz de vivir.

as the fools are fooled again you wonder where the real ones are if there are real ones.

The best way to think is not at all

God, I thought, what about the writer? The writer was the blood and bones and brains (or lack of same) in these creatures. The writer made their hearts beat, gave them words to speak, made them live or die, anything he wanted. And where was the writer? Who ever photographed the writer? Who applauded? But just as well and damn sure just as well: the writer was where he belonged: in some dark corner, watching.

The poem has some value, believe me. It keeps you from going totally mad.

I'm more interested in humanity in general than pussy in the exact.

hay que sobrevivir de un modo u otro, haciendo lo que sepas, la muerte llegará, pero es mejor hacerla esperar un rato con el truco que sea.

I've watched snails climb over ten foot walls and vanish. you mustn't confuse this with ambition.

hell is built piece by piece brick by brick around you.

actually, her life is boring and rather common but most are—mine is too except when lifted by whiskey

now, all there is to do is reset broken moments. when even to exist seems a victory

some men never die and some men never live but we're all alive tonight.

I was laying in bed one night and I thought, 'I'll just quit. To hell with it.' And another little voice inside me said 'Don't quit. Save that tiny little ember of spark. And never give them that spark because as long as you have that spark, you can start the greatest fire again.

some men never die and some men never live

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." "Hank, let's go.

Of course, there were a lot of good people sleeping in the streets. They weren't fools, they just didn't fit into the needed machinery of the moment. And those needs kept altering. It was a grim set-up and if you found yourself sleeping in your own bed at night, that alone was a precious victory over the forces.