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Charles Bukowski Quotes about Writing - Page 2

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The public takes from a writer, or a writing, what it needs and lets the remainder go. but what they take is usually what they need least and what they let go is what they need most.

The public takes from a writer, or a writing, what it needs and lets the remainder go. but what they take is usually what they need least and what they let go is what they need most.

Charles Bukowski
Letting Go, Writing, Needs
Charles Bukowski (2013). “Notes of a Dirty Old Man”, p.99, City Lights Books

When I was young I was depressed all the time. But suicide no longer seemed a possibility in my life. At my age there was very little left to kill. It was good to be old, no matter what they said. It was reasonable that a man had to be at least 50 years old before he could write with anything like clarity.

Charles Bukowski
Suicide, Writing, Men
Charles Bukowski (2007). “Women”, Ecco

Don't ever write a novel unless it hurts like a hot turd coming out.

Charles Bukowski
Hurt, Writing, Hot

I remembered my New Orleans days, living on two five-cent candy bars a day for weeks at a time in order to have leisure to write. But starvation, unfortunately, didn't improve art. It only hindered it. A man's soul was rooted in his stomach. A man could write much better after eating a porterhouse steak and drinking a pint of whiskey than he could ever write after eating a nickel candy bar. The myth of the starving artist was a hoax.

Charles Bukowski
Art, Drinking, Writing
"Factotum". Book by Charles Bukowski, Ch. 29, 1975.

There is only one place to write and that is alone at a typewriter. The writer who has to go into the streets is a writer who does not know the streets. . . when you leave your typewriter you leave your machine gun and the rats come pouring through.

Charles Bukowski
Writing, Gun, Typewriters

Your writing", she said to me, "it's so raw. It's like a sledgehammer, and yet it has humor and tenderness. . . .

Charles Bukowski
Writing, Said, Tenderness
Charles Bukowski (1978). “Women”

The writing's easy, it's the living that is sometimes difficult.

Charles Bukowski
Writing, Sometimes, Easy
Charles Bukowski (2003). “Sunlight Here I Am: Interviews and Encounters, 1963-1993”

If I stop writing I am dead. And that's the only way I'll stop: dead.

Charles Bukowski
Writing, Way, Ifs
Charles Bukowski (2003). “Sunlight Here I Am: Interviews and Encounters, 1963-1993”

I write as a function. Without it I would fall ill and die. It's as much a part of one as the liver or intestine, and just about as glamorous.

Charles Bukowski
Fall, Writing, Function
Charles Bukowski (2008). “Charles Bukowski: portions from a wine-stained notebook : uncollected stories and essays, 1944-1990”, City Lights Publishers

Some of my poems indicate that I am writing while living alone after a split with a woman, and I've had many splits with women. I need solitude more often when I'm not writing than when I am.

Charles Bukowski
Writing, Solitude, Needs
Charles Bukowski (2003). “Sunlight Here I Am: Interviews and Encounters, 1963-1993”

I'm very clever at hiding poems perhaps more clever than I am at writing them.

Charles Bukowski
Clever, Writing, Hiding

To me Art (poetry) is a continuous and continuing process and that when a man fails to write good poetry he fails to live fully or well.

Charles Bukowski
Art, Writing, Men

the writing of some men is like a vast bridge that carries you over the many things that claw and tear. The Wine of Forever

Charles Bukowski
Writing, Wine, Men

WHEN YOU LEAVE YOUR TYPEWRITER YOU LEAVE YOUR MACHINE GUN AND THE RATS COME POURING THROUGH.

Charles Bukowski
Writing, Gun, Typewriters
Charles Bukowski (2013). “Notes of a Dirty Old Man”, p.47, City Lights Books

The writer has no responsibility other than to jack off in bed alone and write a good page.

Charles Bukowski
Writing, Responsibility, Bed

It's hot tonight and half the neighborhood is drunk. the other half is dead. if I have any advice about writing poetry it's - don't. I'm going to send out for some fried chicken.

Charles Bukowski
Writing, Drunk, Advice

and then there are some who believe that old relationships can be revived and made new again. but please if you feel that way don't phone don't write don't arrive

Charles Bukowski
Believe, Writing, Phones
Charles Bukowski (2007). “Come On In!: New Poems”, p.90, Canongate Books

I have seen too many men wilt and go silly under a little light, and then they continue to write and get published, turning out pure crap under a name that has become a bad habit. The next poem is all that counts. You can't stand on past poems.

Charles Bukowski
Silly, Writing, Men

Yes?’ he asked, looking at me over the sheet. ‘I’m a writer temporarily down on my inspirations.’ ‘Oh, a writer, eh?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘Are you sure?’ ‘No, I’m not.’ ‘What do you write?’ ‘Short stories mostly. And I’m halfway through a novel.’ ‘A novel, eh?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘What’s the name of it?’ ‘”The Leaky Faucet of My Doom.”‘ ‘Oh, I like that. What’s it about?’ ‘Everything.’ ‘Everything? You mean, for instance, it’s about cancer?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘How about my wife?’ ‘She’s in there too.

Charles Bukowski
Cancer, Inspiration, Writing

Christmas poem to a man in jail hello Bill Abbott: I appreciate your passing around my books in jail there, my poems and stories. if I can lighten the load for some of those guys with my books, fine. but literature, you know, is difficult for the average man to assimilate (and for the unaverage man too); I don't like most poetry, for example, so I write mine the way I like to read it.

Charles Bukowski
Book, Writing, Men

I'm going to open another vottle. not a vottle, but a bottle. you open it and I'll drink it. and you try to write as much as I did without falling off of your chair.

Charles Bukowski
Fall, Writing, Trying
Charles Bukowski (2008). “Charles Bukowski: portions from a wine-stained notebook : uncollected stories and essays, 1944-1990”, City Lights Publishers

I seldom know what I'm going to write when I sit down. There isn't much agony and sweat of the human spirit involved in doing it. The writing's easy, it's the living that is sometimes difficult.

Charles Bukowski
Writing, Agony, Sweat

A dry period for me means perhaps going two or three nights without writing. I probably have dry periods but I'm not aware of them and I go on writing, only the writing probably isn't much good.

Charles Bukowski
Writing, Mean, Night
Charles Bukowski (2003). “Sunlight Here I Am: Interviews and Encounters, 1963-1993”

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