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Charles Bukowski

Charles Bukowski Quotes

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Famous Charles Bukowski Quotes

“That's the problem with drinking, I thought, as I poured myself a drink. If something bad happens you drink in an attempt to forget; if something good happens you drink in order to celebrate; and if nothing happens you drink to make something happen.”

IfsProblemHappensOrderForgetDrinkDrinkingAddictionAlcoholGoodCelebrateBeerDrinking AlcoholBeer DrinkingDrinking BeerFunny AlcoholAlcohol DrinkingDrinking FunnyAlcohol And LifeGreat BeerDrinking Too MuchDrinks And LoveDrinking ProblemGood BeerGood Drinking
Author:Charles Bukowski
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“For those who believe in God, most of the big questions are answered. But for those of us who can't readily accept the God formula, the big answers don't remain stonewritten. We adjust to new conditions and discoveries. We are pliable. Love need not be a command nor faith a dictum. I am my own god. We are here to unlearn the teachings of the church, state and our educational system. We are here to drink beer. We are here to kill war. We are here to laugh at the odds and live our lives so well that Death will tremble to take us.”

NeedsBelieveWellsWarStatesBigsReligionChurchMy OwnAnswersAcceptingLaughingOur LivesWrittenAtheismTeachingConditionsDrinkDiscoveryStonesAtheistEducationalCommandBeerBelieve In GodFormulasOddsEducational SystemBig QuestionsUnlearnDaily Atheist
Author:Charles Bukowski
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“Drinking is an emotional thing. It joggles you out of the standardism of everyday life, out of everything being the same. It yanks you out of your body and your mind and throws you against the wall. I have the feeling that drinking is a form of suicide where you're allowed to return to life and begin all over the next day. It's like killing yourself, and then you're reborn. I guess I've lived about ten or fifteen thousand lives now.”

MindFeelingsBodyFormNextEmotionalWallReturnDrinkThousandTenSuicideDrinkingKillingEverydayAlcoholYour BodyBeerFifteenEveryday LifeNext DayRebirthDrankRebornDrinking AlcoholBeer DrinkingDrinking BeerAlcohol DrinkingKilling YourselfAlcohol And LifeDay DrinkingEmotional Things
Author:Charles Bukowski
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“I sit here drunk now. I am a series of small victories and large defeats and I am as amazed as any other that I have gotten from there to here without committing murder or being murdered; without having ended up in the madhouse. as I drink alone again tonight my soul despite all the past agony thanks all the gods who were not there for me then.”

SoulPastVictoryDrinkMurderSeriesDefeatDespiteDrunkThanksMy SoulTonightAgonyAmazedMadhousesSmall Victories
Author:Charles Bukowski
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“I was drawn to all the wrong things: I liked to drink, I was lazy, I didn't have a god, politics, ideas, ideals. I was settled into nothingness; a kind of non-being, and I accepted it. I didn't make for an interesting person. I didn't want to be interesting, it was too hard. What I really wanted was only a soft, hazy space to live in, and to be left alone.”

WantKindPersonsIdeasHardWantedLeftSpaceInterestingDrinkIdealsAcceptedLazyNothingnessWrong ThingsLeft AloneHazy
Book:Women
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“..few writers like other writers' works. The only time they like them is when they are dead or if they have been for a long time. Writers only like to sniff their own turds. I am one of those. I don't even like to talk to writers, look at them or worse, listen to them. And the worst is to drink with them, they slobber all over themselves, really look piteous, look like they are searching for the wing of the mother. I'd rather think about death than about other writers. Far more pleasant.”

IfsThinkingLooksLongHas BeensMotherWorstDrinkLong TimeWingsPleasantOnly TimeTurds
Author:Charles Bukowski
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“in the cupboard sits my bottle like a dwarf waiting to scratch out my prayers. I drink and cough like some idiot at a symphony, sunlight and maddened birds are everywhere, the phone rings gamboling its sound against the odds of the crooked sea; I drink deeply and evenly now, I drink to paradise and death and the lie of love.”

LyingWaitingSoundPrayerSeaDrinkBirdDrinkingPhonesRingsIdiotParadiseBottlesSunlightOddsScratchesSymphonyCrookedDwarfsDwarvesCupboardsAgainst The Odds
Author:Charles Bukowski
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“alone with everybody the flesh covers the bone and they put a mind in there and sometimes a soul, and the women break vases against the walls and them men drink too much and nobody finds the one but they keep looking crawling in and out of beds. flesh covers the bone and the flesh searches for more than flesh. there's no chance at all: we are all trapped by a singular fate. nobody ever finds the one. the city dumps fill the junkyards fill the madhouses fill the hospitals fill the graveyards fill nothing else fills.”

MenMindSoulSometimesChanceCitiesBreakToo MuchFateWallDrinkBedBonesFleshHospitalsTrappedDumpGraveyardCrawlingVasesMadhousesJunkyard
Author:Charles Bukowski
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“I could see the road ahead of me. I was poor and I was going to stay poor. But I didn't particularly want money. I didn't know what I wanted. Yes, I did. I wanted someplace to hide out, someplace where one didn't have to do anything. The thought of being something didn't only appall me, it sickened me . . . To do things, to be part of family picnics, Christmas, the 4th of July, Labor Day, Mother's Day . . . was a man born just to endure those things and then die? I would rather be a dishwasher, return alone to a tiny room and drink myself to sleep.”

KnowsMenWantWantedMotherDiesBornSleepPoorRoomsReturnDrinkLaborEndureTiny4th Of JulyMothers DayJulyPicnicsLabor DayDishwashers
Author:Charles Bukowski
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“The nine-to-five is one of the greatest atrocities sprung upon mankind. You give your life to a function that doesn't interest you. This situation so repelled me that I was driven to drink, starvation, and mad females, simply as an alternative.”

GivingInterestSituationFiveMankindDrinkFemaleFunctionMadDrivenNineAlternativesStarvationAtrocitiesSprung
Book:Sunlight Here I Am: Interviews and Encounters, 1963-1993
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