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Charles Bukowski

Charles Bukowski Quotes

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Famous Charles Bukowski Quotes

“The street to my left was backed up with traffic and I watched the people waiting patiently in the cars. There was almost always a man and a women, staring straight ahead, not talking. It was, finally, for everyone, a matter of waiting. You waited and you waited- for the hospital, the doctor, the plumber, the madhouse, the jail, papa death himself. First the signal red, then the signal was green. The citizens of the world ate food and watched t.v. and worried about their jobs or lack of the same, while they waited.”

PeopleMenWorldFirstsMatterJobsLeftWaitingTalkingStreetsCarCitizensRedDoctorsGreenWorriedStaringHospitalsJailTrafficSignalsNot TalkingPapaPlumberMadhouses
Author:Charles Bukowski
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“I like women who haven’t lived with too many men. I don’t expect virginity but I simply prefer women who haven’t been rubbed raw by experience. There is a quality about women who choose men sparingly; it appears in their walk in their eyes in their laughter and in their gentle hearts. Women who have had too many men seem to choose the next one out of revenge rather than with feeling. When you play the field selfishly everything works against you: one can’t insist on love or demand affection. You’re finally left with whatever you have been willing to give which often is: nothing.”

MenGivingHeartHas BeensPlayFeelingsSeemsEyeNextLeftWalksQualityHavensFieldsWillingDemandLaughterAffectionRevengeGentleVirginityOften IsThe Next One
Author:Charles Bukowski
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“Women: I liked the colors of their clothing; the way they walked; the cruelty in some faces; now and then the almost pure beauty in another face, totally and enchantingly female. They had it over us: they planned much better and were better organized. While men were watching professional football or drinking beer or bowling, they, the women, were thinking about us, concentrating, studying, deciding - whether to accept us, discard us, exchange us, kill us or whether simply to leave us. In the end it hardly mattered; no matter what they did, we ended up lonely and insane.”

ThinkingMenWayEndsMatterFacesAcceptingStudyFootballColorPureFemaleLonelyNo Matter WhatDrinkingCrueltyInsaneBeerOrganizedClothingsNow And ThenConcentratingBowlingDrinking Beer
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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“There's nothing to stop a man from writing unless that man stops himself. If a man truly desires to write, then he will. Rejection and ridicule will only strengthen him. And the longer he is held back the stronger he will become, like a mass of rising water against a dam. There is no losing in writing, it will make your toes laugh as you sleep, it will make you stride like a tiger, it will fire the eye and put you face to face with death. You will die a fighter, you will be honored in hell. The luck of the word. Go with it, send it.”

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Author:Charles Bukowski
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“I see men assassinated around me every day. I walk through rooms of the dead, streets of the dead, cities of the dead; men without eyes, men without voices; men with manufactured feelings and standard reactions; men with newspaper brains, television souls and high school ideas.”

MenIdeasSoulFeelingsEyeSchoolVoiceWalksRoomsCitiesBrainStreetsTelevisionStandardsHigh SchoolNewspapersReactionsDead Man
Book:Sunlight Here I Am: Interviews and Encounters, 1963-1993
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“The whole LSD, STP, marijuana, heroin, hashish, prescription cough medicine crowd suffers from the "Watchtower" itch: you gotta be with us, man, or you're out, you're dead. This pitch is a continual and seeming MUST with those who use the stuff. It's no wonder they keep getting busted.”

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Book:Tales of Ordinary Madness
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