Quotes from Charles Bukowski

Some people never go crazy. What truly horrible lives they must lead. My ambition is handicapped by laziness.

It was one of the biggest fattest lies of the century. I've been looking for that guy for years but I'm afraid somebody else has gotten to him first.

I don't want to save the World, I don't even want to save me. We're so boring that we don't event want to save ourselves…There's nothing left to say, we're so fucking boring. Let it die I say. Let there be a new beginning…It's awful. Goodnight!

A number of men tried to catch her eye, but she walked close by my side, holding my arm. Few beautiful women were willing to indicate in public that they belonged to someone. I had known enough women to realize this. I accepted them for what they were, and love came hard and very seldom. When it did it was usually for the wrong reasons. One simply became tired of holding love back and let it go because it needed some place to go. Then usually, there was trouble.

Neal would just go on driving, neither grim or happy or sardonic, just there - doing the movements. I understood. it was necessary. it was his bull ring, his racetrack. it was holy and necessary

And what hurts is the steadily diminishing humanity of those fighting to hold jobs they don't want but fear the alternative worse. People simply empty out. They are bodies with fearful and obedient minds. The color leaves the eye. The voice becomes ugly. And the body. The hair. The fingernails. The shoes. Everything does.

he was rather a handsome guy and I guess he was jealous because I was so ugly.

how to do it" will never create an Art, it will never shake the old skin, it will never get us out of here.

My spoon was bent so that if I wanted to eat I had to pick the spoon up with my right hand. If I picked it up with my left hand, the spoon bent away from my mouth. I wanted to pick the spoon up with my left hand.

there are so many days when living stops and pulls up and sits and waits like a train on the rails. I pass the hotel

some people never go crazy. what truly horrible lives they must live.

The Baron went on doing magic things. Half the notebook was filled with Baron Von Himmlen. It made me feel good to write about the Baron. A man needed somebody. There wasn't anybody around, so you had to make up somebody, make him up to be like a man should be. It wasn't make-believe or cheating. The other way was make-believe and cheating living your life without a man like him around.

still, I'm lucky: I feast on solitude, I will never miss the crowd. I could read the great books but the great books don't interest me. I sit in bed and wait for the whole thing to go one way or the other. just like everybody else.

There is no such thing as beauty, especially in the human face.

I think of two friens who advise me on various methods of suicide. what better proof of loving camaraderie?

Last time I saw you, you had nothing. Now you've got a woman and a radio.

si un hombre no puede permitirse unos cuantos lujos es que no va a durar mucho tiempo.

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

A woman always wants to find the core, tame it, mold it; a wise man never shows the core to a woman. He just gives her a shot of light, shuts it off, becomes himself again.

You scared? asked Garson. Yes, I said, but what about?

and I laugh, I can still laugh, who can't laugh when the whole thing is so ridiculous that only the insane, the clowns, the halfwits, the cheaters, the whores, the horseplayers, the bankrobbers, the poets... are interesting?

I've been so down in the mouth lately that sometimes when I bend over to lace my shoes there are three tongues.

tienes la muerte cerca igual que una amante, más cerca, la conoces como la palma de tu mano como esa mancha en la pared como el nombre de tu hija.

Maybe if you could get away from the obvious often enough, you wouldn't become so obvious yourself.