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Charles Bukowski Quotes - Page 4

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Capitalism has survived communism. Now, it eats away at itself.

Capitalism has survived communism. Now, it eats away at itself.

Charles Bukowski
Communism, Capitalism, Survived

Sex is interesting, but it's not totally important. I mean it's not even as important (physically) as excretion. A man can go seventy years without a piece of ass, but he can die in a week without a bowel movement.

Charles Bukowski
Sex, Mean, Men

Sundays kill more people than bombs.

Charles Bukowski
Sunday, People, Bombs

My dear, Find what you love and let it kill you. Let it drain you of your all. Let it cling onto your back and weigh you down into eventual nothingness. Let it kill you and let it devour your remains. For all things will kill you, both slowly and fastly, but it’s much better to be killed by a lover. ~ Falsely yours

Charles Bukowski
Love, Death, Drains

I have no time for things that have no soul.

Charles Bukowski
Ordinary World, Soul, Understand Me

And don't forget: time is meant to be wasted, love fails and death is useless.

Charles Bukowski
Useless, Chaos, Forget

It's not the large things that send a man to the madhouse... no, it's the continuing series of small tragedies... not the death of his love but the shoelace that snaps with no time left.

Charles Bukowski
Men, Tragedy, His Love

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.

Charles Bukowski
Giving, Mad, Alternatives
Charles Bukowski (2003). “Sunlight Here I Am: Interviews and Encounters, 1963-1993”

I lie as truthfully as I can.

Charles Bukowski
Lying, I Can

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
Mad, Rich Poor, Poverty
Charles Bukowski (2001). “Ham On Rye”, p.307, Canongate Books

Pain is strange. A cat killing a bird, a car accident, a fire.... Pain arrives, BANG, and there it is, it sits on you. It's real. And to anybody watching, you look foolish. Like you've suddenly become an idiot. There's no cure for it unless you know somebody who understands how you feel, and knows how to help.

Charles Bukowski
Pain, Real, Cat
Charles Bukowski (1978). “Women”

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.

Charles Bukowski
Laughter, Revenge, Heart

Love is a form of prejudice. You love what you need, you love what makes you feel good, you love what is convenient. How can you say you love one person when there are ten thousand people in the world that you would love more if you ever met them? But you'll never meet them.

Charles Bukowski
Love Is, People, Feel Good

People with no morals often considered themselves more free, but mostly they lacked the ability to feel or love.

Charles Bukowski
People, Moral, Ability
Charles Bukowski (1978). “Women”

Animals never worry about Heaven or Hell. Neither do I. Maybe that's why we get along.

Charles Bukowski
Animal, Owning A Pet, Worry

I've never met another man I'd rather be.

Charles Bukowski
Men, Mets, Another Man
"Bukowski: Born into This". Documentary, Biography, 2003.

The more cats you have, the longer you live. If you have a hundred cats, you'll live ten times longer than if you have ten. Someday this will be discovered, and people will have a thousand cats and live forever.

Charles Bukowski
Cat, People, Forever
Charles Bukowski (2015). “On Cats”, p.84, Canongate Books

Any asshole can chase a skirt, art takes discipline.

Charles Bukowski
Art, Discipline, Skirts

I don't remember going to bed, but in the morning, there I was.

Charles Bukowski
Morning, Bed, Remember

With me, my main vision for life was to avoid as many people as possible. The less people I saw the better I felt.

Charles Bukowski
People, Vision, Saws
Charles Bukowski (2009). “Hollywood”, p.256, Canongate Books

There's a light somewhere. It may not be much light but it beats the darkness.

Charles Bukowski
Light, Darkness, May
Charles Bukowski, “The Laughing Heart”

Death meant little to me. It was the last joke in a series of bad jokes.

Charles Bukowski
Littles, Lasts, Bad Jokes
Charles Bukowski (1979). “Shakespeare Never Did this”

The crazy ones only laugh when there is no reason to laugh.

Charles Bukowski
Crazy, Laughing, Reason

We’ve died so many times now that we can only wonder why we still care.

Charles Bukowski
Care, Wonder, Stills
Charles Bukowski (2013). “New Poems Book Three”, p.73, Random House

They never pay the slaves enough so they can get free, just enough so they can stay alive and come back to work.

Charles Bukowski
Alive, Pay, Back To Work

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