unless it comes out of your soul like a rocket, unless being still would drive you to madness or suicide or murder, don't do it. unless the sun inside you is burning your gut, don't do it. when it is truly time, and if you have been chosen, it will do it by itself and it will keep on doing it until you die or it dies in you. there is no other way. and there never was.
Charles Bukowski
Related if it doesn't come bursting out of you in spite of everything, don't do it. unless it... CHARLES BUKOWSKI I want to write something so simply about love or about pain that even ... MARY OLIVER Spilling a Secret What its size, will have varying consequences. It’s not ... ELLEN HOPKINS and you invented me and I invented you and that's why we don't get along on this... CHARLES BUKOWSKI It ends or it doesn't. That’s what you say. That’s how you get through it. The tu... CAITLYN SIEHL People always ask me "Son what does it take To reach out and touch your dreams?" To t... TIM MCGRAW Remember The Dream You have a choice Your heart will know You gotta look back s... JAMES INGRAM THE INVITATION by Oriah Mountain Dreamer It doesn't interest me what you do for a li... ORIAH MOUNTAIN DREAMER If you are faced with a mountain, you have several options. You can climb it and cross to... VERA NAZARIAN You enter the forest at the darkest point, where there is no path. Where there ... JOSEPH CAMPBELL LOVE IS A FLOWER Treat your relationship As if you are growing The most beautif... SUZY KASSEM THE WEATHER OF LOVE Love Has a way of wilting Or blossoming At the s... SUZY KASSEM ... so this is for us. This is for us who sing, write, dance, act, study, run and love and... CHARLOTTE ERIKSSON The War Has Been Declared. Your Ally Been Ensnared. It Is Now Or It Is Never. Break T... SUZANNE COLLINS 6 months, 2 weeks, 4 days, and I still don’t know which month it was then or what day it... CHARLOTTE ERIKSSON DON'T SAY, DO Do not say things You think I want to hear. Instead, S... SUZY KASSEM Rockabye Baby, in the treetop Dont you know a treetop is no safe place to rock? And who ... SHEL SILVERSTEIN Rockabye Baby, in the treetop Dont you know a treetop is no safe place to rock? And w... SHEL SILVERSTEIN to live in this world you must be able to do three things to love what is morta... MARY OLIVER Exactly when will you give up? When things will seem out of your hands ? When ... SANHITA BARUAH As you set out on your journey to Ithaca, pray that your journey be a long one, filled wit... BARRY B. POWELL If an eagle gives you a feather, keep it safe. Remember: that giants sleep too soundly; that NEIL GAIMAN There were people who went to sleep last night, poor and rich and white and black, but t... MAYA ANGELOU A kite is a victim you are sure of. You love it because it pulls gentle enough to call you... LEONARD COHEN Ithaka As you set out for Ithaka hope the voyage is a long one, full of ... CONSTANTINOS P. CAVAFIS The Type Everyone needs a place. It shouldn't be inside of someone else. -Richard Siken SARAH KAY Do you know what it is like, to lie in bed awake; with thoughts to haunt you every ni... LANG LEAV Steal not this book for fear of shame For on it is the owners name And when yo... L.M. MONTGOMERY Good creatures, do you love your lives And have you ears for sense? Here is a knife like ... A.E. HOUSMAN The dead do not need aspirin or sorrow, I suppose. but they might need rain... CHARLES BUKOWSKI Rory: Amy. I'm gonna need a little help here. Amy: Just stop it! Rory: Just think it throu... STEVEN MOFFAT This is your world You’re the creator Find freedom on this canvas Believe, that you... BOB ROSS CALL YOURSELF Look deep in the mirror And say: 'I LOVE YOU' And immediately SUZY KASSEM Better associations __________________ If you associate yourself with a change maker... ISRAELMORE AYIVOR Wherever you go in the next catastrophé Be it sickroom, or prison, or cemet’ry ROMAN PAYNE Glossa Time goes by, time comes along, All is old and all is new; What is righ... MIHAI EMINESCU That time I thought I could not go any closer to grief without dying I wen... MARY OLIVER To know the way, we go the way, we do the way. The way we do, the things we do... BENJAMIN HOFF A dragon grows in leaps and bounds, Like troubles mounting by the pound. Its stature... RICHELLE E. GOODRICH The Way It Is There’s a thread you follow. It goes among things that change. But i... WILLIAM STAFFORD Song You know that it is there, lair where the bear ceases for a time eve... FRANK BIDART THE NAKED HEART From womb to tomb, There came and went - Only you. Poor or... SUZY KASSEM Better Associations: If you associate yourself with a change maker, Your life will b... ISRAELMORE AYIVOR It learns quickly what sort of courtship it is going to be. Say you promise to be at your ... MARY OLIVER It’s sarcasm, Josh.” “Sarcasm?” “It’s from the Greek, sarkasmos. T... CHRISTOPHER MOORE Time is expensive ! Then why it is free for many ?? Time is a gift ! Then why preciou... ASHA BHOJANI Did I ever tell you about the man who taught his asshole to talk? His whole abdomen ... WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS I want you to tell me about every person you’ve ever been in love with. Tell me why you loved... ANDREA GIBSON Do you want to improve the world? I don't think it can be done. The world is sacred.... LAO TZU Everything we say and do affects people. It can be either physically or mentally. Words ca... HINA YU THE NAKED HEART From womb to tomb, There came and went - Only you. P... SUZY KASSEM BLESSINGS ARE IMMEASURABLE You can Lose a child Or a parent, The lov... SUZY KASSEM Is there a problem, Ms. Parker? Something you want to say to me?" Reaching for his tie, he began to ... RACHAEL WADE You have to carry the fire." I don't know how to." Yes, you do." Is the fire real? Th... CORMAC MCCARTHY I hold it true that thoughts are things Endowed with bodies, breath, and wings, And that w... ELLA WHEELER WILCOX Girl Without Hands Walking through the ruins on your way to work that do not lo... MARGARET ATWOOD The Master's Sacred Knowledge. Love is the treasure you should seek! The grea... ALLAN RUFUS A Decalogue of Canons for Observation in Practical Life: 1. Never put off to tomorrow wha... THOMAS JEFFERSON O woman, father says natural is beautiful so why do you redden your cheeks and blac... KAMAND KOJOURI I can't get it out," she said. "Just pull at it." "It hurts. It's throbbing."<... LISA KLEYPAS Never say never or it becomes a vice, and there you have it, you just did it twice... ANA CLAUDIA ANTUNES Start by pulling him out of the fire and hoping that he will forget the smell. He was supp... CAITLYN SIEHL People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered. Forgive them anyway. I... MOTHER TERESA There is a fable in the forest Whispered by the branches, as they blow. A tale about the t... ERIN HANSON Elm BY SYLVIA PLATH I know the bottom, she says. I know it with my great tap r... SYLVIA PLATH Here's a funny question: What is your favorite word? Think about it—maybe it... VERA NAZARIAN Fill your bowl to the brim and it will spill. Keep sharpening your knife and it will ... LAO TZU It's a fact—everyone is ignorant in some way or another. Ignorance is our deepes... VERA NAZARIAN girls please give your bodies and your lives to the young men who CHARLES BUKOWSKI No sight so sad as that of a naughty child," he began, "especially a naughty little girl. Do you kno... CHARLOTTE BRONTë I had an accident." "That seemes to happen a lot." "It wasn't my fault." ... RICHELLE MEAD When you are doing all that you know to do yet all hell is breaking out around you, SANJO JENDAYI You're beautiful It's true I saw your face In a crowded place and I dont know what ... JAMES BLUNT If I could take a bite of the whole world And feel it on my palate I’d be more happy for... ALBERTO CAEIRO Don’t pack out ______________ To some people, you make life bright When you d... ISRAELMORE AYIVOR In Blackwater Woods Look, the trees are turning their own bodies in... MARY OLIVER Devereaux is going with our pitch.” “Hey, that’s just great,” I said superperkily. “W... MARIAN KEYES Who is there with you?" "Raphael" Kate's voice snapped. "I'll be in Atlanta in... ILONA ANDREWS Imagine this: Ice is coming to YOUR house. Can you HEAR it knocking? Are you ready? CORNELIA CONNIE D. DEDONA Do not hold your breath for anyone, Do not wish your lungs to be still, It may delay the c... ERIN HANSON You can’t, if you can’t feel it, if it never Rises from the soul, and sways The heart ... JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE A Work of Art ... is not a living thing ... that walks or runs. But the making of a life... LOUIS KAHN If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you, If ... RUDYARD KIPLING You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself an... DR. SEUSS Have you fallen in love, Will Henry?" "That's stupid." "What is? Love, or my ... RICK YANCEY And will you succeed? Yes! You will, indeed! (98 and 3/4 percent guaranteed.) K... DR. SEUSS Ansel: Is it on? John: It is on. Shailene: Ansel paints miniatures. JOHN GREEN You start dying slowly if you do not travel, if you do not read, If you do not lis... MARTHA MEDEIROS How is it that there was never you until there was and then all was you? KAMAND KOJOURI Look, the trees are turning their own bodies into pillars of light, a... MARY OLIVER Sour Milk You can't make it turn sweet again. Once it was an innocen... DIANE WAKOSKI -Desiderata- Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may... MAX EHRMANN when you walk, you look like you’re trying to disappear. your back is gonna be fucked up. CAITLYN SIEHL as long as there are human beings about there is never going to be any peace for... CHARLES BUKOWSKI WHAT IS TRUTH? Truth is not a thing Or a concept. It is as multidimensional SUZY KASSEM It's not easy, but do it anyway It's not easy to love, when you get resentment in re... HENNA SOHAIL It's not easy, but do it anyway It's not easy to love, when you get resentment in re... HENNA SOHAIL The Formless Way We look at it, and do not see it; it is invisible. We listen to it, and d... LAO TZU Every time you try and fail, Every time your hope gets stuck in the deeps, And you wonder ... CHINONYE J. CHIDOLUE Do not avert your eyes. It is important that you see this. It is important that you ... KAMAND KOJOURI
More Charles Bukowski
Having a bunch of cats around is good. If you're feeling bad, you just look at the cats, you'... CHARLES BUKOWSKI The difference between a democracy and a dictatorship is that in a democracy you vote first and take... CHARLES BUKOWSKI There are women who can make you feel more with their bodies and their souls, but these are the exac... CHARLES BUKOWSKI the way to create art is to burn and destroy ordinary concepts and to substitute them with... CHARLES BUKOWSKI In the old days, before I was married, or knew a lot of women, I would just pull down all the shades... CHARLES BUKOWSKI Can you remember who you were, before the world told you who you should be? CHARLES BUKOWSKI Some people never go crazy. What truly horrible lives they must lead. CHARLES BUKOWSKI Understand me. I’m not like an ordinary world. I have my madness, I live in another dimension and ... CHARLES BUKOWSKI I had noticed that both in the very poor and very rich extremes of society the mad were often allowe... CHARLES BUKOWSKI Sometimes you climb out of bed in the morning and you think, I'm not going to make it, but you laugh... CHARLES BUKOWSKI Do you hate people?” “I don't hate them...I just feel better when they're not around. CHARLES BUKOWSKI when I am feeling low all i have to do is watch my cats and my courage CHARLES BUKOWSKI animals never worry about Heaven or Hell. neither do I. maybe that's why we get along CHARLES BUKOWSKI There's nothing like privacy. You know, I like people. It's nice that they might like my books and a... CHARLES BUKOWSKI For those who believe in God, most of the big questions are answered. But for those of us who can't ... CHARLES BUKOWSKI I was a man who thrived on solitude; without it I was like another man without food or water. Each d... CHARLES BUKOWSKI being alone never felt right. sometimes it felt good, but it never felt right. CHARLES BUKOWSKI I've never been lonely. I've been in a room -- I've felt suicidal. I've been depressed. I've felt aw... CHARLES BUKOWSKI Sex is kicking death in the ass while singing. CHARLES BUKOWSKI The shortest distance between two points is often unbearable. CHARLES BUKOWSKI I wish to weep but sorrow is stupid. I wish to believe but belief is a grav... CHARLES BUKOWSKI I loved you like a man loves a woman he never touches, only writes to, keeps little photographs of. CHARLES BUKOWSKI Find what you love and let it kill you. CHARLES BUKOWSKI My dear, Find what you love and let it kill you. Let it drain you of your all. Let it clin... CHARLES BUKOWSKI That is what friendship means. Sharing the prejudice of experience. CHARLES BUKOWSKI For those who believe in God, most of the big questions are answered. But for those of us who can't ... CHARLES BUKOWSKI You begin saving the world by saving one man at a time; all else is grandiose romanticism or politic... CHARLES BUKOWSKI Show me a man who lives alone and has a perpetually clean kitchen, and 8 times out of 9 I'll show yo... CHARLES BUKOWSKI The whole LSD, STP, marijuana, heroin, hashish, prescription cough medicine crowd suffers from the W... CHARLES BUKOWSKI Well, people got attatched. Once you cut the umbilical cord they attatched to the other things. Sigh... CHARLES BUKOWSKI I killed four flies while waiting. Damn, death was everywhere. Man, bird, beast, reptile, rodent, in... CHARLES BUKOWSKI Strangers when you meet, strangers when you part -a gymnasium of bodies namelessly masturbating each... CHARLES BUKOWSKI I see men assassinated around me every day. I walk through rooms of the dead, streets of the dead, c... CHARLES BUKOWSKI Never get out of bed before noon CHARLES BUKOWSKI Show me a man who lives alone and has a perpetually clean kitchen, and 8 times out of 9 I'll show ... CHARLES BUKOWSKI I can relax with bums because I am a bum. I don't like laws, morals, religions, rules. I don'... CHARLES BUKOWSKI Writers have to put up with this editor thing; it is ageless and eternal and wrong. CHARLES BUKOWSKI The more cats you have, the longer you live. If you have a hundred cats, you'll live 10 times lo... CHARLES BUKOWSKI Somebody once asked me what my theory of life was, and I said, 'Don't try.' That fits th... CHARLES BUKOWSKI Genius might be the ability to say a profound thing in a simple way. CHARLES BUKOWSKI When everything works best, it's not because you chose writing but because writing chose you. It... CHARLES BUKOWSKI I guess the only time most people think about injustice is when it happens to them. CHARLES BUKOWSKI when we were kids laying around the lawn on our bellies we often talked CHARLES BUKOWSKI We're all going to die, all of us; what a circus! That alone should make us love each other, but... CHARLES BUKOWSKI we sat there smoking cigarettes at 5 in the morning. CHARLES BUKOWSKI What is your advice to young writers?” “Drink, fuck and smoke plenty of cigarettes. CHARLES BUKOWSKI News travels fast in places where nothing much ever happens. CHARLES BUKOWSKI When I worked on a magazine, I learned that there are many, many writers writing that can't writ... CHARLES BUKOWSKI The Genius Of The Crowd there is enough treachery, hatred violence absurdity in the avera... CHARLES BUKOWSKI What my character is or how many jails I have lounged in, or wards or walls or wassails, how many lo... CHARLES BUKOWSKI you boys can keep your virgins give me hot old women in high heels with asses that forgo... CHARLES BUKOWSKI The telephone is needed for Emergency purposes only These people are not Emergencies,... CHARLES BUKOWSKI Love is a form of prejudice. You love what you need, you love what makes you feel good, you love wha... CHARLES BUKOWSKI there's a bluebird in my heart that wants to get out but I'm too clever, I only let him ou... CHARLES BUKOWSKI I kept writing not because I felt I was so good, but because I felt they were so bad, including Shak... CHARLES BUKOWSKI and our few good times will be rare because we have the critical sense and are not easy to fool... CHARLES BUKOWSKI If you have the ability to love, love yourself first. CHARLES BUKOWSKI I do not like the human race. I don't like their heads, I don't like their faces, I don'... CHARLES BUKOWSKI Censorship is the tool of those who have the need to hide actualities from themselves and from other... CHARLES BUKOWSKI Joan of Arc had style. Jesus had style. CHARLES BUKOWSKI The male, for all his bravado and exploration, is the loyal one, the one who generally feels love. T... CHARLES BUKOWSKI The free soul is rare, but you know it when you see it - basically because you feel good, very good,... CHARLES BUKOWSKI I don't like jail, they got the wrong kind of bars in there. CHARLES BUKOWSKI Bad taste creates many more millionaires than good taste. CHARLES BUKOWSKI I heard an airplane passing overhead. I wished I was on it. CHARLES BUKOWSKI We don’t even ask happiness, just a little less pain. CHARLES BUKOWSKI To experience real agony is something hard to write about, impossible to understand while it grips y... CHARLES BUKOWSKI my mother, poor fish, wanting to be happy, beaten two or three times a week, telling me to... CHARLES BUKOWSKI Poetry is what happens when nothing else can. CHARLES BUKOWSKI There's a bluebird in my heart that wants to get out but I'm too tough for him, I say, sta... CHARLES BUKOWSKI A love like that was a serious illness, an illness from which you never entirely recover. CHARLES BUKOWSKI The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts, while the stupid ones ... CHARLES BUKOWSKI He asked, "What makes a man a writer?" "Well," I said, "it's simple. You either get it down on paper... CHARLES BUKOWSKI What a weary time those years were -- to have the desire and the need to live but not the ability. CHARLES BUKOWSKI I care for you, darling, I love you, the only reason I fucked L. is because you fucked Z. ... CHARLES BUKOWSKI She's mad, but she's magic. There's no lie in her fire. CHARLES BUKOWSKI If you're going to try, go all the way. Otherwise, don't even start. This could mean losing girlfrie... CHARLES BUKOWSKI I'd decided the campus was just a place to hide. There were some campus freaks who stayed on forever... CHARLES BUKOWSKI It was better for me when I could imagine greatness in others, even if it wasn't always there. CHARLES BUKOWSKI what matters most is how well you walk through the fire CHARLES BUKOWSKI Look, let me put it this way: with me, you’re number one and there isn’t even a number two. CHARLES BUKOWSKI I don't write so much now. I'm getting on 33, pot belly and creeping dementia. CHARLES BUKOWSKI I have no definite talent or trade, and how I stay alive is largely a matter of magic. CHARLES BUKOWSKI We're all going to die, all of us, what a circus! That alone should make us love each other but it d... CHARLES BUKOWSKI The thing that I fear discriminating against is humor and truth. CHARLES BUKOWSKI Show me a man who lives alone and has a perpetually clean kitchen, and 8 times out of 9 I'll sho... CHARLES BUKOWSKI We have wasted History like a bunch of drunks shooting dice back in the men's crapper of the loc... CHARLES BUKOWSKI people see so many movies that when they finally see one not so bad as the others, they think it's g... CHARLES BUKOWSKI Show me a man who lives alone and has a perpetually clean kitchen, and 8 times out of 9 I'll show ... CHARLES BUKOWSKI Nothing was ever in tune. People just blindly grabbed at whatever there was: communism, health foods... CHARLES BUKOWSKI The difference between a democracy and a dictatorship is that in a democracy you vote first and take... CHARLES BUKOWSKI Of course it's possible to love a human being if you don't know them too well. CHARLES BUKOWSKI An intellectual says a simple thing in a hard way. An artist says a hard thing in a simple way. CHARLES BUKOWSKI I went to the worst of bars hoping to get killed but all I could do was to get drunk again. CHARLES BUKOWSKI Drinking is an emotional thing. It joggles you out of the standardism of everyday life, out of every... CHARLES BUKOWSKI Show me a man who lives alone and has a perpetually clean kitchen, and 8 times out of 9 I'll show ... CHARLES BUKOWSKI I don't like the clean-shaven boy with the necktie and the good job. I like desperate men, men w... CHARLES BUKOWSKI Humanity, you never had it to begin with. CHARLES BUKOWSKI I have not worked out my poems with a careful will, falling rather on haphazard and blind formulatio... CHARLES BUKOWSKI I only type every third night. I have no plan. My mind is a blank. I sit down. The typewriter gives ... CHARLES BUKOWSKI To do a dull thing with style-now THAT'S what I call art. CHARLES BUKOWSKI You begin saving the world by saving one person at a time; all else is grandiose romanticism or poli... CHARLES BUKOWSKI people diminish me; the longer I sit and listen to them the more empty I feel but I don't... CHARLES BUKOWSKI Everything else just kept picking and picking, hacking away. And nothing was interesting, nothing. T... CHARLES BUKOWSKI A i urreni njerëzit? Unë nuk i urrej ata ... Unë vetëm ndjehen mirë kur ata nuk janë për... CHARLES BUKOWSKI If you want to know who your friends are, get yourself a jail sentence. CHARLES BUKOWSKI My writing is jagged and harsh, I want it to remain that way; I don't want it smoothed out. CHARLES BUKOWSKI Never envy a man his lady. Behind it all lays a living hell. CHARLES BUKOWSKI I will remember the kisses our lips raw with love and how you gave me everything y... CHARLES BUKOWSKI What a pitiful mass of dangerous nothing CHARLES BUKOWSKI there's no release, just gurus and self- appointed gods and hucksters. the more people say, the less... CHARLES BUKOWSKI I'm too careless. I don't put out enough effort. I'm tired. CHARLES BUKOWSKI it doesn't matter if Prince Charles falls off his horse or that the hummingbird is so seldom CHARLES BUKOWSKI The best thing about the bedroom was the bed. I liked to stay in bed for hours, even during the day ... CHARLES BUKOWSKI There is only one place to write and that is alone at a typewriter. The writer who has to go into th... CHARLES BUKOWSKI there is a place in the heart that will never be filled a space and even ... CHARLES BUKOWSKI Real loneliness is not necessarily limited to when you are alone. CHARLES BUKOWSKI now it’s computers and more computers and soon everybody will have one, 3-year-olds will... CHARLES BUKOWSKI Beasts bounding through time. Van Gogh writing his brother for paints Hemingway tes... CHARLES BUKOWSKI dogs and angels are not very far apart CHARLES BUKOWSKI I remember awakening one morning and finding everything smeared with the color of forgotten love. CHARLES BUKOWSKI Most poets are young simply because they have not been caught up. Show me an old poet, and I'll ... CHARLES BUKOWSKI I didn't have any friends at school, didn't want any. I felt better being alone. I sat on a bench an... CHARLES BUKOWSKI My days, my years, my life has seen up and downs, lights and darknesses. If I wrote only and continu... CHARLES BUKOWSKI they simply never understand, do they, that sometimes solitude is one of the mos... CHARLES BUKOWSKI great writers are indecent people they live unfairly saving the best part for paper. ... CHARLES BUKOWSKI there is a loneliness in this world so great that you can see it in the slow movement of t... CHARLES BUKOWSKI My flesh looked like it wasn't trying. It looked like it hated being part of me. CHARLES BUKOWSKI Style is the answer to everything. A fresh way to approach a dull or dangerous thing To do... CHARLES BUKOWSKI You women have more holes than swiss cheese. CHARLES BUKOWSKI I'm becoming softer and softer. CHARLES BUKOWSKI y la fama y el amor nada más que un truco para atenuar nuestra herida. CHARLES BUKOWSKI Uno se puede encariñar de muchas cosas aparte del sexo pero es mejor si el sexo está presente de a... CHARLES BUKOWSKI las palabras bonitas como las mujeres bonitas se arrugan y mueren. CHARLES BUKOWSKI there are worse things than being alone but it often takes decades to realize this CHARLES BUKOWSKI your best men are drunks and your worst men are locking them up, your best men a... CHARLES BUKOWSKI there was something about that city, though it didn't let me feel guilty that I had n... CHARLES BUKOWSKI we must bring our own light to the darkness. CHARLES BUKOWSKI my beerdrunk soul is sadder than all the dead christmas trees of the world. CHARLES BUKOWSKI Thirty- eight years old and he was finished. He sipped at the coffee and remembered where he had gon... CHARLES BUKOWSKI I wanted the whole world or nothing. CHARLES BUKOWSKI You have to die a few times before you can really live. CHARLES BUKOWSKI My ambition is handicapped by laziness CHARLES BUKOWSKI Some people never go crazy, What truly horrible lives they must live. CHARLES BUKOWSKI I went to the kitchen and felt-up the turkey. CHARLES BUKOWSKI There is nothing that teaches you more than regrouping after failure ad moving on. Yet most people a... CHARLES BUKOWSKI Well it’s good to have a car like that, once in a while somebody’ll say, ‘why don’t you come... CHARLES BUKOWSKI If I write badly about blacks, homosexuals and women, it is because of these who I met were that. Th... CHARLES BUKOWSKI having nothing to struggle against they have nothing to struggle for. CHARLES BUKOWSKI There is a time to stop reading, there is a time to STOP trying to WRITE, there is a time to kick th... CHARLES BUKOWSKI I stopped looking for a Dream Girl, I just wanted one that wasn't a nightmare. CHARLES BUKOWSKI The place trembled with sound. I didn't need to do anything. They would do it all. But you had to be... CHARLES BUKOWSKI You're afraid of the audience, aren't you?" "Yes, but it's not stagefright. It's that I'm there... CHARLES BUKOWSKI To do a dull thing with style-now that's what I call art. CHARLES BUKOWSKI Sex is interesting, but it's not totally important. I mean it's not even as important (physically) a... CHARLES BUKOWSKI Before you kill something make sure you have something better to replace it with; something better t... CHARLES BUKOWSKI I don't like jail, they got the wrong kind of bars in there CHARLES BUKOWSKI There are worse things than being alone, CHARLES BUKOWSKI Boring damned people. All over the earth. Propagating more boring damned people. What a horror show.... CHARLES BUKOWSKI that your power of command with simple language was one of the magnificent things of ... CHARLES BUKOWSKI Cats tell me without effort all that there is to know. CHARLES BUKOWSKI I think that the world should be full of cats and full of rain, that's all, just cats... CHARLES BUKOWSKI My objection to war was not that I had to kill somebody or be killed senselessly, that hardly matter... CHARLES BUKOWSKI My heart is a thousand years old. I am not like other people. CHARLES BUKOWSKI girls please give your bodies and your lives to the young men who CHARLES BUKOWSKI We’ve all heard that little woman who says, “Oh, it’s terrible what these young people do to t... CHARLES BUKOWSKI - I tak nieźle sobie pożyłem. - Co to za życie? – powiedział ojciec.- Nic tylko kłamstw... CHARLES BUKOWSKI I guess I´m too used to sitting in a small room and making words do a few things. I see enoug... CHARLES BUKOWSKI So be careful when you bend over. CHARLES BUKOWSKI as long as there are human beings about there is never going to be any peace for... CHARLES BUKOWSKI I have, he went on, betrayed myself with belief, deluded myself with love tricked myself w... CHARLES BUKOWSKI is there any wonder why the world is where it’s at now? just notice the creature sitting near you ... CHARLES BUKOWSKI they thought that writing had something to do with the politics of the thing. CHARLES BUKOWSKI it’s as if he were hiding in there and I want to console him, say: “I am sorry, poor fellow, but... CHARLES BUKOWSKI it is a fine sunny day and great matters loom across the horizon of history. Carthage in my rearview... CHARLES BUKOWSKI I often carry things to read so that I will not have to look at the people. CHARLES BUKOWSKI another hot summer night as I sit here and play at being a writer again. and the worst thing of cour... CHARLES BUKOWSKI Living too long takes more than time CHARLES BUKOWSKI humanity you sick motherfucker. CHARLES BUKOWSKI I look like a man in a death camp. I am. still, I'm lucky: I feat on solitude, ... CHARLES BUKOWSKI Writing is its own intoxication. CHARLES BUKOWSKI if I had a book or a drink then I didn’t think too much of other things—fools create their own p... CHARLES BUKOWSKI But you know, my former life as a bibliophile, it possibly kept me from murdering somebody, myself i... CHARLES BUKOWSKI alone tonight in this house, alone with 6 cats who tell me without effort all that there is to know. CHARLES BUKOWSKI a bird no one wants. he’s mine. my bird of pain. he doesn’t sing. that bird swaying on the bough... CHARLES BUKOWSKI of one hundred movies there's one that is fair, one that's good and ninety eight that are very bad. ... CHARLES BUKOWSKI people are worn away with striving, they hide in common habits. their concerns are herd concerns. fe... CHARLES BUKOWSKI death is walking up and down this room smoking my cigars taking hits of my <... CHARLES BUKOWSKI there was a soldier in the next room living with his wife and he would soon be going over there to p... CHARLES BUKOWSKI I was so thin I could slice bread with my shoulderblades, only I seldom had bread CHARLES BUKOWSKI well, death says, as he walks by, I'm going to get you anyhow no matter what you've been: writer, ca... CHARLES BUKOWSKI not writing is not good but trying to write when you can't is worse. CHARLES BUKOWSKI great books are the ones we need CHARLES BUKOWSKI young or old, good or bad, I don't think anything dies as slow and as hard as a writer. CHARLES BUKOWSKI I could read the great books but the great books don't interest me. CHARLES BUKOWSKI writing about a writer's block is better than not writing at all CHARLES BUKOWSKI I tell you such fine music waits in the shadows of hell. CHARLES BUKOWSKI I often carry things to read so that I will not have to look at the people. CHARLES BUKOWSKI Now we are citizens of nothing. the sun itself knows the sad truth of how we surrendered our lives a... CHARLES BUKOWSKI I was sentimental about many things: a woman’s shoes under the bed; one hairpin left behind on the... CHARLES BUKOWSKI