Quotes from Charles Bukowski

I just don't like people, I don't even like myself

The priest read his thing. I didn't listen. There was the coffin. What had been Betty was in there. It was very hot. The sun came down in one yellow sheet. A fly circled around. Halfway through the halfway funeral two guys in working clothes came carrying my wreath. The roses were dead, dead and dying in the heat, and they leaned the thing up against a nearby tree. Near the end of the service my wreath leaned forward and fell flat on its face. Nobody picked it up. Then it was over.

each woman fucked just a bit differently, and that's what kept a man going, that's what kept a man trapped.

Well, I had been a night janitor once before in San Francisco. You smuggled a bottle of wine in with you, worked like hell, and then when everybody else had gone, you sat looking out at the windows, drinking wine and waiting for the dawn.

Todos nós vamos morrer, que circo! Só isso deveria fazer com que amássemos uns aos outros, mas não faz. Somos aterrorizados e esmagados pelas trivialidades, somos devorados por nada.

As the soul wanes, form appears.

Aeg oli seisma jäänud ja eksistents oli väljakannatamatu.

I had come to the racetrack after the other two funerals and had won. There was something about funerals. It made you see things better. A funeral a day and I'd be rich.

The absence of humanity is a fulfillment so graceful that even God would understand if he invented them, which he probably didn't.

I've always said if you want to find out who your friends are go to a madhouse or jail.

It's not pleasant to die on the cross, it's much more pleasant to hear your name whispered in the dark.

The good die old, I thought.

he estado solo pero rara vez me he sentido solo he saciado mi sed en el pozo de mi ser, y el vino era bueno, el mejor que he probado

I got into bed, opened the bottle, worked the pillow into a hard knot behind my back, took a deep breath, and sat in the dark looking out of the window. It was the first time I had been alone for five days. I was a man who thrived on solitude; without it I was like another man without food or water. Each day without solitude weakened me. I took no pride in my solitude; but I was dependent on it. The darkness of the room was like sunlight to me. I took a drink of wine.

so we had to tell our stories and they were stories.

I'm going to call the police!" Cindy said. "Hold it," I said, "I can explain everything!" "It better be good," said Cindy. "It better," said Celine. I couldn't think of anything. I just stood there.

I have nothing against 2 men sleeping together so long as I am not one of those 2 men.

I wasn't interested in world history, only my own. What crap. Your parents controlled your growing-up period, they pissed all over you. Then when you got ready to go out on your own, the others wanted to stick you into a uniform so you could get your ass shot off.

y Dios, sí, él era blando. los poemas eran todos muy duros; había jugado al duro siempre, pero era un blando. en realidad todo el mundo era blando... el duro estaba allí sólo para cubrir al blando. qué trampa ridícula y estúpida.

I listened and listened and listened, thinking what will I do now? How will I get this poor mad bastard to shut up? I went home each night dizzy and sick. He was murdering me with the sound of his voice.

I've always been a slow starter.

I was lonely all right. I was lonely for that big ass standing beside me.

A maioria das pessoas não está pronta para a morte, a sua ou a dos outros. Ela as choca, as apavora. É como uma grande surpresa. Diabos, não deveria ser nunca. Levo a morte em meu bolso esquerdo. Ás vezes, tiro-a do bolso e falo com ela: 'Oi, gata, como vai? Quando virá me buscar? Vou estar pronto'.

Hijo, aire y luz y tiempo y espacio no tienen nada que ver con la creación y no crean nada más que, quizá, una vida más larga para encontrar nuevas excusas para no hacerlo