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Charles Bukowski

Charles Bukowski Quotes

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Famous Charles Bukowski Quotes

“Hell, I'd even failed with women. Three wives. Nothing really wrong each time. It all got destroyed by petty bickering. Railing about nothing. Getting pissed-off over anything and everything. Day by day, year by year, grinding. Instead of helping each other you just sliced away, picked at this or that. Goading. Endless goading. It became a cheap contest. And once you got into it, it became habitual. You couldn't seem to get out. You almost didn't want to get out. And then you did get out. All the way.”

WayWantYearsHelpingSeemsThreeHellWifeEndlessDestroyedContestsPettyHabitualPissed OffHelping Each OtherBickeringAnything And Everything
Author:Charles Bukowski
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“there's a bluebird in my heart that wants to get out but I'm too clever, I only let him out at night sometimes when everybody's asleep. I say, I know that you're there, so don't be sad. then I put him back, but he's singing a little in there, I haven't quite let him die and we sleep together like that with our secret pact and it's nice enough to make a man weep, but I don't weep, do you?”

KnowsMenWantHeartLittlesSometimesEnoughTogetherNightDiesSleepSecretNiceHavensMy HeartSingingCleverPactBluebirdDon't Be Sad
Book:On Love
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“I couldn't get myself to read the want ads. The thought of sitting in front of a man behind a desk and telling him that I wanted a job, that I was qualified for a job, was too much for me. Frankly, I was horrified by life, at what a man had to do simply in order to eat, sleep, and keep himself clothed. So I stayed in bed and drank. When you drank the world was still out there, but for the moment it didn't have you by the throat.”

MenWorldWantStillsMomentsWantedJobsOrderWorkSleepBehindsToo MuchFrontsBedSittingDrinkingReal LifeDrunkMeaning Of LifeThroatAdsDesksLiving My LifeQualifiedRestrictionDrankNew Job
Author:Charles Bukowski
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“And it seems people should not build houses anymore it seems people should stop working and sit in small rooms on second floors under electric lights without shades; it seems there is a lot to forget and a lot not to do and in drugstores, markets, bars, the people are tired, they do not want to move, and I stand there at night and look through this house and the house does not want to be built”

PeopleWantShouldLooksDoeLightSeemsMovingNightHouseForgetRoomsBuiltTiredBarsShadeElectricElectric LightSmall Rooms
Book:Burning in Water, Drowning in Flame
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“...maybe a damned good night's sleep will bring me back to a gentle sanity. But at the moment, I look about this room and, like myself, it's all in disarray: things fallen out of place, cluttered, jumbled, lost, knocked over and I can't put it straight, don't want to. Perhaps living through these petty days will get us ready for the dangerous ones.”

WantLooksI CanMomentsNightLostSleepRoomsDangerousReadyGentleFallenSanityPettyGood NightDisarray
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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“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
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“I lapsed into my pathetic cut-off period. Often with humans, both good and bad, my senses simply shut off, they get tired, I give up. I am polite. I nod. I pretend to understand because I don’t want anybody to be hurt. That is the one weakness that has lead me into the most trouble. Trying to be kind to others I often get my soul shredded into a kind of spiritual pasta. No matter. My brain shuts off. I listen. I respond. And they are too dumb to know that I am not there.”

KnowsWantGivingTryingHumansKindSoulMatterSpiritualHurtBrainCuttingTroublePeriodsGiving UpWeaknessTiredSensesMy SoulDumbBe KindPoliteGood And BadPatheticLeading MePastaBe Kind To Others
Book:Hollywood
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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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“Everything was a trap: women, drugs, whiskey, wine, scotch, beer - even beer - cigars, and cigarettes. Traps: Work or no work. Traps: Artistry or no artistry; everything sucked you into some spiderweb. I disdained the use of the needle for the same reason that I disdained some so-called beautiful women - the price was far beyond the measure of the worth. I didn't want to hustle that hard.”

WantHardReasonUseBeautifulDrugWineBeerCigaretteTrapsBeautiful WomenNeedlesWhiskeyHustleArtistryCigarScotch
Book:Charles Bukowski: portions from a wine-stained notebook : uncollected stories and essays, 1944-1990
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