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Charles Bukowski quotes
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(59)
Français
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“How in the hell could a man enjoy being awakened at 8:30 a.m. by an alarm clock, leap out of bed, dress, force-feed, shit, piss, brush teeth and hair, and fight traffic to get to a place where essentially you made lots of money for somebody else...”
Charles Bukowski
,
Factotum
“When you drank the world was still out there, but for the moment it didn't have you by the throat.”
Charles Bukowski
,
Factotum
“I had noticed that both in the very poor and very rich extremes of society the mad were often allowed to mingle freely.”
Charles Bukowski
,
Ham on Rye
“I had always been good company for myself.”
Charles Bukowski
,
Ham on Rye
“I guess the only time most people think about injustice is when it happens to them.”
Charles Bukowski
,
Ham on Rye
“I had decided against religion a couple of years back. If it were true, it made fools out of people, or it drew fools. And if it weren't true, the fools were all the more foolish.”
Charles Bukowski
,
Ham on Rye
“It was a joy. Words weren't dull, words were things that could make your mind hum. If you read them and let yourself feel the magic, you could live without pain, with hope, no matter what happened to you.”
Charles Bukowski
,
Ham on Rye
“And nothing was interesting, nothing. The people were restrictive and careful, all alike. And I've got to live with these fuckers for the rest of my life, I thought.”
Charles Bukowski
,
Ham on Rye
“So, that's what they wanted: lies. Beautiful lies. That's what they needed. People were fools. It was going to be easy for me.”
Charles Bukowski
,
Ham on Rye
“I often stood in front of the mirror alone, wondering how ugly a person could get.”
Charles Bukowski
,
Ham on Rye
“Food is good for the nerves and the spirit. Courage comes from the belly—all else is desperation.”
Charles Bukowski
,
Post Office
“You'll never be a writer if you hide from reality.”
Charles Bukowski
,
Ham on Rye
“For each Joan of Arc there is a Hitler perched at the other end of the teeter-totter.”
Charles Bukowski
,
Factotum
“Baby . . . I'm a genius but nobody knows it but me.”
Charles Bukowski
,
Factotum
“I was an Agnostic. Agnostics didn't have much to argue about.”
Charles Bukowski
,
Ham on Rye
“My ambition is handicapped by laziness.”
Charles Bukowski
,
Factotum
“Nothing is worse than to finish a good shit, then reach over and find the toilet paper container empty. Even the most horrible human being on earth deserves to wipe his ass.”
Charles Bukowski
,
Factotum
“Getting drunk was good. I decided that I would always like getting drunk. It took away the obvious and maybe if you could get away from the obvious often enough, you wouldn't become obvious yourself.”
Charles Bukowski
,
Ham on Rye
“The parents of rich kids tended to be more patriotic because they had more to lose if the country went under.”
Charles Bukowski
,
Ham on Rye
“That was all a man needed: hope. It was lack of hope that discouraged a man.”
Charles Bukowski
,
Factotum
“Walking out with the people, I didn't know which was more exciting, the air race, the parachute jump that failed, or the cunt.”
Charles Bukowski
,
Ham on Rye
“I made practice runs down to skid row to get ready for my future.”
Charles Bukowski
,
Ham on Rye
“What a weary time those years were—to have the desire and the need to live but not the ability.”
Charles Bukowski
,
Ham on Rye
“News travels fast in places where nothing much ever happens.”
Charles Bukowski
,
Ham on Rye
“I heard an airplane passing overhead. I wished I was on it.”
Charles Bukowski
,
Ham on Rye
“I didn't have any friends at school, didn't want any. I felt better being alone. I sat on a bench and watched the others play and they looked foolish to me.”
Charles Bukowski
,
Ham on Rye
“People don't need love. What they need is success in one form or another. It can be love but it needn't be.”
Charles Bukowski
,
Factotum
“It seemed better to delay thinking...”
Charles Bukowski
,
Ham on Rye
“It began as a mistake.”
Charles Bukowski
,
Post Office
“But now and then, a woman walks up, full blossom, a woman just bursting out of her dress... a sex creature, a curse, the end of it all.”
Charles Bukowski
,
Post Office
“I wanted the whole world or nothing.”
Charles Bukowski
,
Post Office
“The best thing about the bedroom was the bed. I liked to stay in bed for hours, even during the day with the covers pulled up to my chin. It was good in there, nothing ever occurred in there, no people, nothing.”
Charles Bukowski
,
Ham on Rye
“She hiked her skirt higher. It was like the beginning of life and laughter, it was the real meaning of the sun.”
Charles Bukowski
,
Factotum
“it wasn't enough to just do your job, you had to have an interest in it, even a passion for it.”
Charles Bukowski
,
Factotum
“I knew I was strong, and maybe like they said, 'crazy.' But I had this feeling inside of me that something real was there.”
Charles Bukowski
,
Ham on Rye
“I was a man who thrived on solitude; without it I was like another man without food or water. Each day without solitude weakened me. I took no pride in my solitude; but I was dependent on it.”
Charles Bukowski
,
Factotum
“I drank in my words like a thirsty man. I even began to believe them.”
Charles Bukowski
,
Ham on Rye
“I liked the area, it had great shade trees, and since some people had told me that I was ugly, I always preferred shade to the sun, darkness to light.”
Charles Bukowski
,
Ham on Rye
“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.”
Charles Bukowski
,
Factotum
“What you must do, with money and the poor, is never let them get too close to one another.”
Charles Bukowski
,
Ham on Rye
“I'm unhappy. If I was a cynic it would probably make me feel better.”
Charles Bukowski
,
Ham on Rye
“Only assholes talk about writing…”
Charles Bukowski
,
Ham on Rye
“They experimented on the poor and if that worked they used the treatment on the rich. And if it didn't work, there would still be more poor left over to experiment upon.”
Charles Bukowski
,
Ham on Rye
“If you can hit a guy once, you can hit him twice.”
Charles Bukowski
,
Ham on Rye
“People don't do me much good.”
Charles Bukowski
,
Ham on Rye
“All a guy needed was a chance. Somebody was always controlling who got a chance and who didn't.”
Charles Bukowski
,
Ham on Rye
“They laughed. Things were funny. They weren't afraid to care. There was no sense to life, to the structure of things.”
Charles Bukowski
,
Ham on Rye
“It didn't pay to trust another human being. Humans didn't have it, whatever it took.”
Charles Bukowski
,
Ham on Rye
“But starvation, unfortunately, didn't improve art. It only hindered it.”
Charles Bukowski
,
Factotum
“A woman is a full-time job. You have to choose your profession.”
Charles Bukowski
,
Factotum
view all 59 quotes
Related topics
drinking
madness
loneliness
beauty
love
poverty
religion
ambition
life
foolishness
self
work
injustice
passion
women
misanthropy
desire
writing
words
courage
Related sources
Ham on Rye
(41)
Factotum
(14)
Post Office
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