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What Matters Most is How Well You Walk Through the Fire

Book by Charles Bukowski · 4 quotes · Fire, Charles Bukowski, Flame

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What Matters Most is How Well You Walk Through the Fire Quotes

“If you're going to try, go all the way. Otherwise, don't even start. This could mean losing girlfriends, wives, relatives and maybe even your mind. It could mean not eating for three or four days. It could mean freezing on a park bench. It could mean jail. It could mean derision. It could mean mockery--isolation. Isolation is the gift. All the others are a test of your endurance, of how much you really want to do it. And, you'll do it, despite rejection and the worst odds. And it will be better than anything else you can imagine. If you're going to try, go all the way. There is no other feeling like that. You will be alone with the gods, and the nights will flame with fire. You will ride life straight to perfect laughter. It's the only good fight there is.”

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Book:What Matters Most is How Well You Walk Through the Fire
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“I write poetry, worry, smile, laugh sleep continue for a while just like most of us just like all of us; sometimes I want to hug all Mankind on earth and say, god damn all this that they've brought down upon us, we are brave and good even though we are selfish and kill each other and kill ourselves, we are the people born to kill and die and weep in dark rooms and love in dark rooms, and wait, and wait and wait and wait. we are the people. we are nothing more.”

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“the night was beginning and i was standing before the plate glass window of a restaurant and in that window was a roasted pig, eyeless, with an apple in its mouth. poort damned pig. poor damned me. beyond the pig inside there were people sitting at tables talking, eating, drinking i was not one of those people i felt a kinship with the pig we had been caught in the wrong place at the wrong time i imagined myself in the window eyeless, roasted, the apple in my mouth … i walked away from the window i walked to my room i still had a room as i walked to my room i began to conjecture: could i eat some paper? some newspaper? roaches? maybe i could catch a rat? a raw rat? peel off the fur, remove the intestines remove the eyes forego the head, the tail … i walked along. i was so hungry that everything looked eatable: people, fireplugs, asphalt, wristwatches … my belt, my shirt … i sat in a chair i din’t turn on the light i sat there and wondered if i was crazy because i wasn’t doing anything to help myself the hunger stopped then and i just sat there then i heard it: two people in the next room copulating. i could hear the bed spring and the moans i got up, walked out of the room and back into the street. but i walked in a different direction this time i walked away from the pig in the window but i thought about the pig and i decided that i’d die first rather than eat that pig. it began to rain i looked up. i opened my mouth and let in the rain drops… soup from the sky...”

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Book:What Matters Most is How Well You Walk Through the Fire
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