C Bukowski Quotes & Sayings

Places to hunt
places to hide are
getting harder to find, and pet
canaries and goldfish too, did you notice
that? — Charles Bukowski

Well, i don't know about you but I'm going to try everything! War, women, travel, marriage, children, the works. [ ... ]. I want to know about things, what makes them work! — Charles Bukowski

I have consumed more drink than the first
one hundred men you will pass
on the street
or meet in the madhouse.
I scratch my belly and dream of the
albatross.
I have joined the great drunks of
the centuries:
Li Po, Toulouse-Lautrec, Crane, Faulkner.
I have been selected
but by whom? — Charles Bukowski

You know the typical crowd, Wow, it's Friday night, what are you going to do? Just sit there? Well, yeah. Because there's nothing out there. It's stupidity. Stupid people mingling with stupid people. Let them stupidify themselves. I've never been bothered with the need to rush out into the night. That's all. Sorry for all the millions, but I've never been lonely. I like myself. I'm the best form of entertainment I have. — Charles Bukowski

In my work, as a writer, I only photograph, in words, what I see. — Charles Bukowski

good weather
is like
good women -
it doesn't always happen
and when it does
it doesn't
always last. — Charles Bukowski

Love is for real men. — Charles Bukowski

It was true that I didn't have much ambition, but there ought to be a place for people without ambition, I mean a better place than the one usually reserved. How in the hell could a man enjoy being awakened at 6:30 a.m. by an alarm clock, leap out of bed, dress, force-feed, shit, piss, brush teeth and hair, and fight traffic to get to a place where essentially you made lots of money for somebody else and were asked to be grateful for the opportunity to do so? — Charles Bukowski

Sundays kill more people than bombs. — Charles Bukowski

In my next life I want to be a cat. To sleep 20 hours a day and wait to be fed. To sit around licking my ass. — Charles Bukowski

Death is not the problem; waiting around for it is. — Charles Bukowski

I read my books at night, like that, under the quilt with the overheated reading lamp. Reading all those good lines while suffocating. It was magic. — Charles Bukowski

That boy was ready for his life to come, he would undoubtedly be highly successful, the lying little prick. — Charles Bukowski

Animals are inspirational. They don't know how to lie. They are natural forces. — Charles Bukowski

I have lost my rhythm.
I can't sleep.
I can't eat.
I have been robbed of
my filth. — Charles Bukowski

I care for you, darling, I love you,
the only reason I fucked L. is because you fucked
Z. and then I fucked R. and you fucked N.
and because you fucked N. I had to fuck
Y. But I think of you constantly, I feel you
here in my belly like a baby, love I'd call it,
no matter what happens I'd call it love, and so
you fucked C. and then before I could move
you fucked W., so I had to fuck D. But
I want you to know that I love you, I think of you
constantly, I don't think I've ever loved anybody
like I love you. — Charles Bukowski

Jan was an excellent fuck ... she had a tight pussy and she took it like it was a knife that was killing her. — Charles Bukowski

Nekalayla claimed he had once been walking through the desert when he met Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ told him everything. They sat on a rock together and J.C. laid it on him. Now he was passing the secrets on to those who could afford it. He also held a service every Sunday. His help, who were also his followers, rang in and out on timeclocks. — Charles Bukowski

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

Ya got cigarettes?" she asks. "Yes," I say,
"I got cigarettes." "Matches?" she asks.
"Enough to burn Rome." "Whiskey?"
"Enough whiskey for a Mississippi River
of pain." "You drunk?" "Not yet. — Charles Bukowski

Look, you're small-town. I've had over 50 jobs, maybe a hundred. I've never stayed anywhere long. What I am trying to say is, there is a certain game played in offices all over America. The people are bored, they don't know what to do, so they play the office-romance game. Most of the time it means nothing but the passing of time. Sometimes they do manage to work off a screw or two on the side. But even then, it is just an offhand pasttime, like bowling or t.v. or a New Year's Eve party. You've got to understand that it doesn't mean anything and then you won't get hurt. Do you understand what I mean?"
I think that Mr. Partisan is sincere."
You're going to get stuck with that pin, babe, don't forget what I told you. Watch those slicks. They are as phony as a lead dime. — Charles Bukowski

I walk into the kitchen, look at the typer down there on the floor. It's a dirty floor. It's a dirty typer that types dirty stories — Charles Bukowski

No matter how little a man has he will find that he will always settle for less. — Charles Bukowski

Ambition rarely has anything to do with talent. Luck is best, and talent limps along a little bit behind luck. — Charles Bukowski

I get 75 letters a month. If i answered them that's all I would ever do. — Charles Bukowski

Sometimes you make a mistake, taking the wrong poem more often I make the mistake, writing it. — Charles Bukowski

I reached over, opened it in the middle, and began reading Tolstoy's War and Peace. Nothing had changed. It was still a lousy book. — Charles Bukowski

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. — Charles Bukowski

Lighting new cigarettes,
pouring more
drinks.
It has been a beautiful
fight.
Still
is. — Charles Bukowski

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

Long before I became 'rich and famous' I just sat round drinking wine and staring at the walls. — Charles Bukowski

A complete subnormal idiot. A good guy. wait until the fog came in some night and they sent him back to his lonely closed for a hand job. — Charles Bukowski

But right now it's Bob Dylan Bob Dylan Bob Dylan all the way. — Charles Bukowski

People need me. I fill them. If they can't see me for a while they get desperate, they get sick. But if I see them too often I get sick. It's hard to feed without getting fed. — Charles Bukowski