Charles Bukowski Quotes

I´ve given you my time. Its all I´ve got to give - its all any man has. And for a pitiful buck and a quarter an hour.

I decided to stay in bed until noon. Maybe by then half the world would be dead and it would only be half as hard to take.

I can see wherecreation oftenstops while thebody still livesand oftendoes not careto.the death of lifebefore lifedies.

Most so-called brave people lack imagination. As though they can’t conceive of what would happen if something went wrong. The truly brave overcome their imagination and do what they have to do.

Most so-called brave people lack imagination. As though they can’t conceive of what would happen if something went wrong. The truly brave overcome their imagination and do what they have to do. 2

my poems are only bits of scratchingon the floor of acage.

The Artist, " an ancient sage had once said, "is always sitting on the doorsteps of the rich.

How are his poems?""He's not as good as he thinks he is, but then most of us feel that way.

We’ve each given the hours of our lives in dull rote jobs for other men’s profit, and have been asked to be grateful for doing that.

Animals are inspirational. They don’t know how to lie. They are natural forces.

no concept of danger, reality, flow or compassion. you can feel the despair escaping from their machines, their lives as hopeless and as numbed as yours.

Ithink that theworld should be full of cats and full of rain, that's all, justcats andrain, rain and cats, very nice, goodnight.

That's your response to everything: drink?""No, that's my response to nothing.

The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts while the stupid one are full of confidence".

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

and beware those whoonly takeinstructions from theirGodfor they havefailed completely to live their ownlives.

for meobedience to another is the decay of self.for though every being is similareach being is differentand to herd our differencesunder one lawdegrades each self.

Cats tell me without effort all that there is to know.

I am sad for the dead and I am sad for the livingbut not for my 5 cats

Having a bunch of cats around is good. If you're feeling bad, just look at the cats, you'll feel better, because they know that everything is, just as it is.

The factories, the jails, the drunken days and nights, the hospitals have weakened and shaken me like a mouse in the mouth of a hip-cat: life.- from an Aug. 1965 letter to Jim Roman "On Cats

The cat is the beutiful devil. And here we can use the word, even without the “a.”- from a Dec. 21 1960, a letter to Sheri Martinelli"On Cats

I felt like a still live fish on ice in a butcher’s counter on Friday morning.- On Cats

DEATH COMES SLOWLY LIKE ANTS TO A FALLEN FIG

Isolation is a gift. Everything else is just a test of your endurance. You will be alone with the Gods. Your nights will flame with fire.

you've got to know when to let a woman go if you want to keep her, and if you don't want to keep her you let her go anyhow so it's always a process of letting go, one way or the other.

I was like a turd that drew flies instead of like a flower that butterflies and bees desired. I wanted to live alone, I felt best being alone, cleaner, , ,

The cat is the beautiful devil.

Potential, " I said, "doesn't mean a thing. You've got to do it. Almost every baby in a crib has more potential than I have.

Genius could be the ability to say a profound thing in a simple way, or even to say a simple thing in a simpler way.

Belane, are you nuts?"Who knows? Insanity is comparative. Who sets the norm?

I've learned to feel good when I feel good.it's better to be driven around in a red porschethan to ownone. the luck of the fool is inviolate.

peace of mind and heartarriveswhen we accept what is:having beenborn into thisstrange lifewe must acceptthe wasted gamble of ourdaysand take some satisfaction inthe pleasure ofleaving it allbehind.

There is always somebody about to ruin your day, if not your life.

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

I think I need a drink.''Almost everybody does only they don't know it.

So where do you go? Back to the bottle And back to a tiny room somewhere. And wait. And wait, and wait. That's all.

Endurance is more important than truth because without endurance there can't be any truth. And truth means going to the end like you mean it. That way, death itself comes up short when it grabs

from the beginning, through themiddle years and up to theend:too bad, too bad, too bad.

I am sick with caring.

Don't you go to the movies?""Mostly just to eat popcorn in the dark.

it doesn't matter if Prince Charles falls off his horseor that the hummingbird is so seldomseenor that we are too senseless to goinsane.coffee. give us more of that NOTHINGcoffee.

the rent is a little higher herebut so far I've been able to pay itand that's a miracle toolike still maybe being sanewhile thinking of guns and sidewalksand old ladies in libraries.

The thing that I fear discriminating against is humor and truth.

You begin saving the world by saving one man at a time all else is grandiose romanticism or politics.