Quotessence
Home / Authors / Charles Bukowski
Charles Bukowski

Charles Bukowski Quotes

Poet

Filter quotes by topic

AllPeopleIfsMenKnowsLifeBukowskiWritingWayThinkingLove

Famous Charles Bukowski Quotes

“Unless it comes out of your soul like a rocket, unless being still would drive you to madness or suicide or murder, don't do it. unless the sun inside you is burning your gut, don't do it. when it is truly time, and if you have been chosen, it will do it by itself and it will keep on doing it until you die or it dies in you. there is no other way. and there never was.”

IfsWayHas BeensStillsSoulMotivationalTimeDiesSunMadnessMurderSuicideChosenBurningYour SoulGutsFollow Your HeartRocketsListen To Your HeartListen To YourselfBursting Out
Author:Charles Bukowski
Create image

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

PeopleWayLittlesMatterWholeProblemAgeEvilLeftNationsWorstBabyEatingNo Matter WhatFinishedDrivingPresidentialCandidatesVotingAutomobileHamHaving A BabyPresidential Candidate
Author:Charles Bukowski
Create image

“Writing is something that you don't know how to do. You sit down and it's something that happens, or it may not happen. So, how can you teach anybody how to write? It's beyond me, because you yourself don't even know if you're going to be able to. I'm always worried, well, you know, every time I go upstairs with my wine bottle. Sometimes I'll sit at that typewriter for fifteen minutes, you know. I don't go up there to write. The typewriter's up there. If it doesn't start moving, I say, well this could be the night that I hit the dust.”

IfsKnowsWritingWellsMaySometimesHappensAbleMovingNightFearTeachKnow HowMinutesDown AndWineDustWorriedBottlesFifteenTypewritersWriter's BlockUpstairs
Author:Charles Bukowski
Create image

“I was naturally a loner, content just to live with a woman, eat with her, sleep with her, walk down the street with her. I didn't want conversation, or to go anywhere except the racetrack or the boxing matches. I didn't understand t.v. I felt foolish paying money to go into a movie theatre and sit with other people to share their emotions. Parties sickened me. I hated the game-playing, the dirty play, the flirting, the amateur drunks, the bores.”

PeopleWantPlayGamesFeltSleepWalksPartyEmotionShareStreetsConversationTheatreFoolishDirtyHatedBoxingBoresFlirtingLonerBoxing MatchesMovie Theatre
Author:Charles Bukowski
Create image

“After dinner or lunch or whatever it was -- with my crazy 12-hour night I was no longer sure what was what -- I said, "Look, baby, I'm sorry, but don't you realize that this job is driving me crazy? Look, let's give it up. Let's just lay around and make love and take walks and talk a little. Let's go to the zoo. Let's look at animals. Let's drive down and look at the ocean. It's only 45 minutes. Let's play games in the arcades. Let's go to the races, the Art Museum, the boxing matches. Let's have friends. Let's laugh. This kind of life like everybody else's kind of life: it's killing us.”

GivingLooksKindLittlesArtSaidPlayJobsNightGamesRealizingHoursWalksAnimalRaceLaughingCrazyMinutesBabyOceanDown AndLaysKillingSorryDinnerDrivingBoxingMuseumsLunchMaking LoveI'm SorryZoosDrive Me CrazyBoxing MatchesArcades
Book:Charles Bukowski Fiction Collection
Create image

“The dog approached again, cautiously. I found the bologna sandwich, ripped off a chunk, wiped the cheap watery mustard off, then placed it on the sidewalk. The dog walked up to the bit of sandwich, put his nose to it, sniffed, then turned and walked off. This time he didn't look back. He accelerated down the street. No wonder I had been depressed all my life. I wasn't getting proper nourishment.”

LooksFoundBitsWonderStreetsDogNosesSandwichesNourishmentRippedChunksSidewalkMustardBologna
Book:Ham On Rye
Create image

“The Laughing Heart your life is your life don’t let it be clubbed into dank submission. be on the watch. there are ways out. there is a light somewhere. it may not be much light but it beats the darkness. be on the watch. the gods will offer you chances. know them. take them. you can’t beat death but you can beat death in life, sometimes. and the more often you learn to do it, the more light there will be. your life is your life. know it while you have it. you are marvelous the gods wait to delight in you.”

KnowsWayHeartMaySometimesLightLife IsWaitingChanceWatchesDarknessLaughingOffersBeatsDelightGods WillMarvelousSubmissionDankLevi's
Author:Charles Bukowski
Create image