Charles Bukowski
Charles Bukowski was a German-born American writer and poet known for his raw and unapologetic writing style that explored the gritty realities of urban life. He is famous for his works such as "Post Office," "Factotum," and "Women," which often depicted the struggles of the working class and the underbelly of society. Bukowski's writing often revolved around themes of alcoholism, love, and survival, earning him a reputation as a prominent figure in contemporary literature.
My ambition is handicapped by laziness.
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People are strange: they are constantly angered by trivial things, but on a major matter like totally wasting their lives, they hardly seem to notice.
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Find what you love and let it kill you.
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I took no pride in my solitude; but I was dependent on it. The darkness of the room was like sunlight to me.
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Charles Bukowski (1975). "Factotum", p. 102, Black Sparrow Press
Some people never go crazy. What truly horrible lives they must lead.
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I lived so carefully, thinking someone was watching. But the stage was empty, the audience never came.
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A good meal, a good talk, a good fuck--what better way to pass the day?
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He loved books; books are cold but safe friends.
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Victor Hugo (1862). "Les Misérables", p. 152, Project Gutenberg
What matters most is how well you walk through the fire.
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We're all going to die, all of us, what a circus! That alone should make us love each other but it doesn't. We are terrorized and flattened by trivialities, we are eaten up by nothing.
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The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts and the stupid ones are full of confidence.
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We are here to laugh at the odds and live our lives so well that Death will tremble to take us.
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Charles Bukowski (1988). "The Meaning of Life: The Big Picture", Life Magazine, December 1988.
You have to die a few times before you can really live.
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People run from rain but sit in bathtubs full of water.
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I was waiting for something extraordinary to happen, but as the years wasted on, nothing ever did unless I caused it.
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There are worse things than being alone.
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Charles Bukowski (2012). "The Pleasures of the Damned: Selected Poems 1951-1993", p.170, Canongate Books
That's the problem with drinking, I thought, as I poured myself a drink. If something bad happens you drink in an attempt to forget; if something good happens you drink in order to celebrate; and if nothing happens you drink to make something happen.
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I demand unconditional love and complete freedom. That is why I am terrible.
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All I want to do is sit on my ass all day and fart and think of Dante.
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Almost everybody is born a genius and buried an idiot.
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Charles Bukowski (1969). "Notes of a Dirty Old Man", p. 102, City Lights Books.
What my character is or how many jails I have lounged in, or wards or walls or wassails, how many lonely-heart poetry readings I have dodged, is beside the point. A man's soul or lack of it will be evident with what he can carve upon a white sheet of paper.
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I am a genius but nobody knows it but me.
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I guess the only time most people think about injustice is when it happens to them.
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The saddest thing I can imagine is to get used to luxury.
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The free soul is rare, but you know it when you see it—basically because you feel good, very good, when you are near or with them.
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Ham on Rye (1982) by Charles Bukowski
You begin saving the world by saving one man at a time; all else is grandiose romanticism or politics.
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Charles Bukowski (1983). "Tales of Ordinary Madness," p.101, City Lights Books