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Charles Bukowski Quotes - Page 9

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as a child i suppose i was not quite normal. my happiest times were when i was left alone in the house on a saturday.

as a child i suppose i was not quite normal. my happiest times were when i was left alone in the house on a saturday.

Charles Bukowski
Children, House, Normal
Charles Bukowski (2009). “sifting through the madness for the word, the line, the way: New Poems”, p.6, Zondervan

Boring damned people. All over the earth. Propagating more boring damned people. What a horror show. The earth swarmed with them.

Charles Bukowski
Life, Hipster, People

He asked, "What makes a man a writer?" "Well," I said, "it's simple. You either get it down on paper, or jump off a bridge.

Charles Bukowski
Simple, Men, Bridges

some moments are nice, some are nicer, some are even worth writing about.

Charles Bukowski
Nice, Writing, Moments

when I was a boy I used to dream of becoming the village idiot. I used to lie in bed and imagine myself the happy idiot able to get food easily ...and easy sympathy, a planned confusion of not too much love or effort. some would claim that I have succeeded.

Charles Bukowski
Dream, Lying, Boys
Charles Bukowski (2009). “The Continual Condition: Poems”, p.4, Harper Collins

You have my soul and I have your money

Charles Bukowski
Soul, My Soul

As we live we all get caught and torn by various traps. Nobody escapes them. Some even live with them. The idea is to realize that a trap is a trap. If you are in one and you don't realize it, then you're finished.

Charles Bukowski
Ideas, Realizing, Traps

I needed a vacation. I needed 5 women. I needed to get the wax out of my ears. My car needed an oil change. I'd failed to file my damned income tax. One of the stems had broken off of my reading glasses. There were ants in my apartment. I needed to get my teeth cleaned. My shoes were run down at the heels. I had insomnia. My auto insurance had expired. I cut myself every time i shaved. I hadn't laughed in 6 years. I tended to worry when there was nothing to worry about. And when there was something to worry about, i got drunk.

Charles Bukowski
Running, Reading, Cutting

Beware Those Who Are ALWAYS READING BOOKS

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

I wasn’t lonely. I experienced no self-pity. I was just caught up in a life in which I could find no meaning.

Charles Bukowski
Lonely, Self, Pity
Charles Bukowski (2009). “sifting through the madness for the word, the line, the way: New Poems”, p.316, Zondervan

Bad poetry is caused by people who sit down and think, Now I am going to write a Poem.

Charles Bukowski
Writing, Thinking, People

your letters got sadder. your lovers betrayed you. kid, I wrote back, all lovers betray. it didn't help. you said you had a crying bench and it was by a bridge and the bridge was over the river and you sat on the crying bench every night and wept for the lovers who had hurt and forgotten you.

Charles Bukowski
Hurt, Kids, Night

Now something so sad has hold of us that the breath leaves and we can't even cry.

Charles Bukowski
Grief, Sorrow, Cry
Charles Bukowski (2012). “The Pleasures of the Damned: Selected Poems 1951-1993”, p.86, Canongate Books

Well, people got attatched. Once you cut the umbilical cord they attatched to the other things. Sight, sound, sex, money, mirages, mothers, masturbation, murder, and Monday morning hangovers.

Charles Bukowski
Mother, Monday, Morning

It’s never quite right, all the things we are taught, all the loves we chase, all the deaths we die, all the lives we live.

Charles Bukowski
Taught, Dies

Never envy a man his lady. Behind it all lays a living hell.

Charles Bukowski
Men, Envy, Hell
"Charles Bukowski: Locked in the Arms of a Crazy Life". Book by Howard Sounes, 1998.

Some nights I knew that if I slept I would die.

Charles Bukowski
Night, Dies, Ifs
Charles Bukowski (2009). “Hollywood”, p.59, Canongate Books

The Difference Between Art and Life is that Art is More Bearable

Charles Bukowski
Art, Differences, Life Is
Charles Bukowski, David Stephen Calonne (2013). “More Notes of a Dirty Old Man: The Uncollected Columns”, p.239, City Lights Books

Bad taste creates many more millionaires than good taste.

Charles Bukowski
Taste, Millionaire, Good Taste
Charles Bukowski (2009). “Hollywood”, p.94, Canongate Books

I didn't like parties.I didn't know how to dance and people frightened me, especially people at parties. They attempted to be sexy and gay and witty and although they hoped they were good at it, they weren 't. They were bad at it. Their trying so hard only made it worse.

Charles Bukowski
Sexy, Witty, Party

Most people are not ready for death, theirs or anybody elses.

Charles Bukowski
People, Not Ready, Ready
Charles Bukowski (2009). “The Captain is Out to Lunch”, p.13, Harper Collins

...in that drunken place you would like to hand your heart to her and say touch it but then give it back.

Charles Bukowski
Heart, Hands, Giving

I enjoy the bad things that are said about me. It enhances sales and makes me feel evil. I don't like to feel good 'cause I am good. But evil? Yes. It gives me another dimension.

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

It was like the beginning of life and laughter. It was the real meaning of the sun

Charles Bukowski
Laughter, Real, Laughing

Each person is only given so many evenings and each wasted evening is a gross violation against the natural course of your only life.

Charles Bukowski
Evening, Natural, Given

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