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Charles Bukowski Quotes - Page 13

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Maybe when I get in the grave, things will be beautiful.

Maybe when I get in the grave, things will be beautiful.

Charles Bukowski
Beautiful, Graves

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
Pain, Book, Reading

one can never be sure whether it's good poetry or bad acid

Charles Bukowski
Acid, Good Poetry

Anybody can be a non-drunk. It takes a special talent to be a drunk. It takes endurance. Endurance is more important than truth.

Charles Bukowski
Beer, Drunk, Important
Charles Bukowski (1984). “Barfly: the continuing saga of Henry Chinaski”, Paget Pr

Why did I come here? I thought. Why is it always only a matter of choosing between something bad and something worse?

Charles Bukowski
Matter
Charles Bukowski (2001). “Ham On Rye”, p.182, Canongate Books

we only asked for leopards to guard our thinning dreams.

Charles Bukowski
Dream, Leopards
Charles Bukowski (2012). “The Pleasures of the Damned: Selected Poems 1951-1993”, p.60, Canongate Books

There's no way I can stop writing, it's a form of insanity.

Charles Bukowski
Writing, Insanity, Way
Charles Bukowski (1978). “Women”

If you're going to try, go all the way. This could mean losing girlfriends, wives, relatives, jobs and maybe your mind.

Charles Bukowski
Girlfriend, Jobs, Mean

The secret is writing down one simple line after another.

Charles Bukowski
Writing, Simple, Secret

I was so thin I could slice bread with my shoulderblades, only I seldom had bread.

Charles Bukowski
Bread
he New York Quarterly: NYQ. Issues 35-38 p. 50, 1988.

I have two rules. One is, never trust a man who smokes a pipe. The other is, never trust a man with shiny shoes.

Charles Bukowski
Men, Shoes, Two
Charles Bukowski (2009). “Hollywood”, p.38, Canongate Books

there is enough treachery , hatred violence absurdity in the average human being to supply any given army on any given day

Charles Bukowski
Army, Average, Hatred
Charles Bukowski (2012). “The Pleasures of the Damned: Selected Poems 1951-1993”, p.148, Canongate Books

It was sad, it was sad, it was sad. When Betty came back we didn't sing or laugh, or even argue. We sat drinking in the dark, smoking cigarettes, and when we went to sleep, I didn't put my feet on her body or she on mine like we used to. We slept without touching. We had both been robbed.

Charles Bukowski
Drinking, Sleep, Dark
Charles Bukowski (2011). “Post Office”, p.79, Random House

Love is all right for those who can handle the psychic overload. It's like trying to carry a full garbage can on your back over a rushing river of piss.

Charles Bukowski
Love Is, Psychics, Garbage Cans

You can forgive a fool because he only runs in one direction and doesn't deceive anybody. It's the deceivers who make you feel bad.

Charles Bukowski
Forgiveness, Running, Cheating

I am ashamed to be a member of the human race but I don't want to add any more to that shame, I want to scrape a little of it off.

Charles Bukowski
Race, Add, Want
Charles Bukowski (2013). “Notes of a Dirty Old Man”, p.48, City Lights Books

whiskey makes the heart beat faster but it sure doesn't help the mind and isn't it funny how you can ache just from the deadly drone of existence?

Charles Bukowski
Heart, Mind, Drones

If it doesn't come bursting out of you in spite of everything, don’t do it.

Charles Bukowski
Bursting Out, Bursting, Spite
Charles Bukowski (2009). “sifting through the madness for the word, the line, the way: New Poems”, p.3, Zondervan

to fight for each minute is to fight for what is possible within yourself, so that your life and your death will not be like theirs.

Charles Bukowski
Fighting, Minutes
Charles Bukowski (2009). “The People Look Like Flowers At Last: New Poems”, p.43, Harper Collins

I call 'em complaining machines. Things are never right with a guy to them. And man, when you throw that hysteria in there ... forget it. I gotta get out, get in the car, and go. Anywhere. Get a cup of coffee somewhere. Anywhere. Anything but another woman. I guess they're just built different, right?

Charles Bukowski
Women, Coffee, Hysteria

when I am feeling low all i have to do is watch my cats and my courage returns

Charles Bukowski
Courage, Cat, Feelings
Charles Bukowski (2015). “On Cats”, p.105, Canongate Books

What's genius? I don't know but I do know that the difference between a madman and a professional is that a pro does as well as he can within what he has set out to do and a madman does exceptionally well at what he can't help doing.

Charles Bukowski
Differences, Doe, Genius

I don't think I'll travel anymore. Travel is nothing but an inconvenience. There is always enough trouble where you are.

Charles Bukowski
Travel, Thinking, Trouble
Charles Bukowski (2003). “Sunlight Here I Am: Interviews and Encounters, 1963-1993”

Parties sickened me. I hated the game-playing, the dirty play, the flirting, the amateurs drunks, the bores.

Charles Bukowski
Party, Drinking, Dirty
Charles Bukowski (1978). “Women”

I don't know if this is true to you but for me sometimes it gets so bad that anything else say like looking at a bird on an overhead power line seems as great as a Beethoven symphony. then you forget it and you're back again.

Charles Bukowski
Symphony, Bird, Lines

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