1,615 Quotes by Charles Bukowski

People just don’t know how to write down a simple easy line. It’s difficult for them; it’s like trying to keep a hard-on while drowning – not many can do it.

All a guy needed was a chance. Somebody was alway controlling who got a chance and who didn’t.

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.

But she projected vitality – you knew that she was there.

There’s a bluebird in my heart that wants to get out.

If you’re going to try, go all the way. There is no other feeling like that. You will be alone with the gods, and the nights will flame with fire. You will ride life straight to perfect laughter. It’s the only good fight there is.

I don’t know about other people, but when I wake up in the morning and put my shoes on, I think, Jesus Christ, now what?

Basically, that’s why I wrote: to save my ass, to save my ass from the madhouse, from the streets, from myself.

I grow tired of 18th century moralities in a 20th century space-atomic age.