WIST Quotations

Bukowski, Charles -- “A Dollar and Twenty Cents” (1967)

Dave — Wed, 03 Nov 2021 14:10:48 +0000

if you don’t have much soul left and you know it, you still got soul.

Charles Bukowski (1920-1994) German-American author, poet
“A Dollar and Twenty Cents” (1967)
(Source)

Often misquoted as "If you're losing your soul and you know it, then you've still got a soul left to lose."

Bukowski, Charles -- “a pleasant afternoon in bed,” It Catches My Heart In Its Hands (1963)

Dave — Wed, 15 Sep 2021 13:44:38 +0000

… and we are in bed
together
laughing
and we don’t care
about anything …

Charles Bukowski (1920-1994) German-American author, poet
“a pleasant afternoon in bed,” It Catches My Heart In Its Hands (1963)

Bukowski, Charles -- “Charles Bukowski,” interview by Alden Mills, Arete (Jul/Aug 1989)

Dave — Wed, 29 Sep 2021 14:06:18 +0000

But the problem is that bad writers tend to have the self-confidence, while the good ones tend to have self-doubt.

Charles Bukowski (1920-1994) German-American author, poet
“Charles Bukowski,” interview by Alden Mills, Arete (Jul/Aug 1989)

This is almost always misquoted in a much broader paraphrase, e.g., "The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts, while the stupid ones are full of confidence," perhaps to echo Russell and Yeats.

More examination of this quotation: The Best Lack All Conviction While the Worst Are Full of Passionate Intensity – Quote Investigator.

Bukowski, Charles -- “Gamblers All” (1990)

Dave — Wed, 10 Nov 2021 16:53:29 +0000

sometimes you climb out of bed in the morning and you think,
I’m not going to make it, but you laugh inside
remembering all the times you’ve felt that way

Charles Bukowski (1920-1994) German-American author, poet
“Gamblers All” (1990)
(Source)

Originally titled "8 Count and Up".

Bukowski, Charles -- “How Is Your Heart?” (1986)

Dave — Wed, 04 Sep 2019 19:00:49 +0000

what matters most is
how well you
walk through the
fire.

Charles Bukowski (1920-1994) German-American author, poet
“How Is Your Heart?” (1986)
(Source)

Bukowski, Charles -- “Oh Yes,” You Get So Alone At Times That It Just Makes Sense (1986)

Dave — Wed, 01 Dec 2021 15:25:49 +0000

there are worse things than
being alone
but it often takes decades
to realize this
and most often
when you do
it’s too late
and there’s nothing worse
than
too late.

Charles Bukowski (1920-1994) German-American author, poet
“Oh Yes,” You Get So Alone At Times That It Just Makes Sense (1986)
(Source)

Bukowski, Charles -- “Some People”

Dave — Wed, 08 Sep 2021 14:16:59 +0000

some people never go crazy.
what truly horrible lives
they must lead.

Charles Bukowski (1920-1994) German-American author, poet
“Some People”
(Source)

Bukowski, Charles -- “The Bluebird”

Dave — Wed, 27 Oct 2021 14:27:18 +0000

there’s a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I’m too tough for him,
I say, stay in there, I’m not going
to let anybody see
you.

Charles Bukowski (1920-1994) German-American author, poet
“The Bluebird”
(Source)

Bukowski, Charles -- “The Meaning of Life: The Big Picture,” Life Magazine (Dec 1988)

Dave — Fri, 17 Jan 2020 18:25:43 +0000

For those who believe in God, most of the big questions are answered. But for those of us who can’t readily accept the God formula, the big answers don’t remain stone-written. We adjust to new conditions and discoveries. We are pliable. Love need not be a command or faith a dictum. I am my own God. We are here to unlearn the teachings of the church, state and our educational system. We are here to drink beer. We are here to kill war. We are here to laugh at the odds and live our lives so well that Death will tremble to take us.

Charles Bukowski (1920-1994) German-American author, poet
“The Meaning of Life: The Big Picture,” Life Magazine (Dec 1988)
(Source)

Bukowski, Charles -- “The Telephone” (c. 1991), The Last Night of the Earth (1992)

Dave — Wed, 06 Oct 2021 15:01:55 +0000

Each person is only given so many
Evenings
And each wasted evening is
A gross violation against the
Natural course of
Your only
Life ….

Charles Bukowski (1920-1994) German-American author, poet
“The Telephone” (c. 1991), The Last Night of the Earth (1992)
(Source)

Bukowski, Charles -- “two kinds of hell” (c. 1990)

Dave — Wed, 13 Oct 2021 13:51:55 +0000

I was waiting for
something extraordinary to
happen

but as the years wasted on
nothing ever did unless I
caused it

Charles Bukowski (1920-1994) German-American author, poet
“two kinds of hell” (c. 1990)
(Source)

While this sounds motivational, in the context of the poem, the "extraordinary" things (bar fights, dalliances) always end up poorly.

First published in Third Lung Review, #8 (1992); collected in an edited version in The People Look Like Flowers at Last (2007).

Bukowski, Charles -- Barfly (1987)

Dave — Wed, 17 Nov 2021 14:21:21 +0000

I don’t hate people, I just feel better when they aren’t around.

Charles Bukowski (1920-1994) German-American author, poet
Barfly (1987)
(Source)

From the movie screenplay by Bukowski.

This is the way the phrase is usually quoted, but it's actually a series of lines when Henry (a character standing in for Bukowski himself) first meets Wanda.

WANDA: I can't stand people. I hate them.
HENRY: Yeah?
WANDA: You hate them?
HENRY: No, but I seem to feel better when they're not around.

Bukowski is actually in the scene as the barfly closest to Wanda before Henry moves next to her. Video clip.

Bukowski, Charles -- Erections, Ejaculations, Exhibitions and Tales of Ordinary Madness (1972)

Dave — Wed, 16 May 2007 19:42:50 +0000

The difference between a Democracy and a Dictatorship is that in a Democracy you vote first and take orders later; in a Dictatorship you don’t have to waste your time voting.

Charles Bukowski (1920-1994) German-American author, poet
Erections, Ejaculations, Exhibitions and Tales of Ordinary Madness (1972)
(Source)

Bukowski, Charles -- Factotum, ch. 31 (1975)

Dave — Fri, 13 Mar 2020 14:24:25 +0000

I couldn’t get myself to read the want ads. The thought of sitting in front of a man behind a desk and telling him that I wanted a job, that I was qualified for a job, was too much for me. Frankly, I was horrified by life, at what a man had to do simply in order to eat, sleep, and keep himself clothed.

Charles Bukowski (1920-1994) German-American author, poet
Factotum, ch. 31 (1975)

Bukowski, Charles -- Factotum, ch. 31 (1975)

Dave — Wed, 22 Dec 2021 21:21:03 +0000

When you drank the world was still out there, but for the moment it didn’t have you by the throat.

Charles Bukowski (1920-1994) German-American author, poet
Factotum, ch. 31 (1975)

Bukowski, Charles -- Factotum, ch. 45 (1975)

Dave — Wed, 31 May 2017 17:42:32 +0000

My ambition is handicapped by my laziness.

Charles Bukowski (1920-1994) German-American author, poet
Factotum, ch. 45 (1975)

Bukowski, Charles -- Factotum, ch. 55 (1975)

Dave — Wed, 15 Dec 2021 15:30:45 +0000

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 (1920-1994) German-American author, poet
Factotum, ch. 55 (1975)

Bukowski, Charles -- Factotum, ch. 65 (1975)

Dave — Wed, 29 Dec 2021 21:56:25 +0000

Nothing is worse than to finish a good shit, then reach over and find the toilet paper container empty. Even the most horrible human being on earth deserves to wipe his ass.

Charles Bukowski (1920-1994) German-American author, poet
Factotum, ch. 65 (1975)

Bukowski, Charles -- Factotum, ch. 72 (1975)

Dave — Wed, 05 Jan 2022 16:36:34 +0000

I’m no preacher but I can tell you this — the lives that people lead are driving them crazy and their insanity comes out in the way they drive.

Charles Bukowski (1920-1994) German-American author, poet
Factotum, ch. 72 (1975)

Bukowski, Charles -- Hollywood, ch. 4 (1989)

Dave — Wed, 12 Jan 2022 15:58:52 +0000

Money is like sex. It seems much more important when you don’t have any.

Charles Bukowski (1920-1994) German-American author, poet
Hollywood, ch. 4 (1989)
(Source)

Bukowski, Charles -- Notes of a Dirty Old Man (1969)

Dave — Fri, 31 Jan 2020 15:47:45 +0000

If you want to know who your friends are, get yourself a jail sentence.

Charles Bukowski (1920-1994) German-American author, poet
Notes of a Dirty Old Man (1969)
(Source)

Bukowski, Charles -- Notes of a Dirty Old Man (1969)

Dave — Fri, 14 Feb 2020 17:33:44 +0000

An intellectual is a man who says a simple thing in a difficult way; an artist is a man who says a difficult thing in a simple way.

Charles Bukowski (1920-1994) German-American author, poet
Notes of a Dirty Old Man (1969)
(Source)

Bukowski, Charles -- Notes of a Dirty Old Man (1969)

Dave — Wed, 24 Nov 2021 20:15:30 +0000

Sex is interesting, but it’s not totally important. I mean, it’s not even as important (physically) as excretion. A man can go seventy years without a piece of ass, but he can die in a week without a bowel movement.

Charles Bukowski (1920-1994) German-American author, poet
Notes of a Dirty Old Man (1969)
(Source)

Bukowski, Charles -- sifting through the madness for the Word, the line, the way, Part 2, epigram (2003)

Dave — Wed, 20 Oct 2021 19:25:10 +0000

Real loneliness is not necessarily limited to when you are alone.

Charles Bukowski (1920-1994) German-American author, poet
sifting through the madness for the Word, the line, the way, Part 2, epigram (2003)
(Source)

The book was reprinted as New Poems, Book Two (2011).

Bukowski, Charles -- Sunlight Here I Am: Interviews and Encounters, 1963-1993 (2003)

Dave — Fri, 24 Jan 2020 16:59:25 +0000

I see men assassinated around me every day. I walk through rooms of the dead, streets of the dead, cities of the dead: men without eyes, men without voices; men with manufactured feelings and standard reactions; men with newspaper brains, television souls and high school ideals.

Charles Bukowski (1920-1994) German-American author, poet
Sunlight Here I Am: Interviews and Encounters, 1963-1993 (2003)
(Source)

When asked his reaction to the assassination of John Kennedy.

Bukowski, Charles -- Tales of Ordinary Madness, “Too Sensitive” (1967)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

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

Charles Bukowski (1920-1994) German-American author, poet
Tales of Ordinary Madness, “Too Sensitive” (1967)

Bukowski, Charles -- The Captain is Out to Lunch and the Sailors Have Taken Over the Ship (1998)

Dave — Thu, 25 Feb 2021 21:52:52 +0000

The human race exaggerates everything: its heroes, its enemies, its importance.

Charles Bukowski (1920-1994) German-American author, poet
The Captain is Out to Lunch and the Sailors Have Taken Over the Ship (1998)

Bukowski, Charles -- What Matters Most is How Well You Walk Through the Fire (1999)

Dave — Wed, 22 Sep 2021 12:59:10 +0000

Things get bad for all of us, almost continually, and what we do under the constant stress reveals who/what we are.

Charles Bukowski (1920-1994) German-American author, poet
What Matters Most is How Well You Walk Through the Fire (1999)

Bukowski, Charles -- Interview (1987-09) by Sean Penn, “Tough Guys Write Poetry,” Interview Magazine, Vol. 17, No. 19

Dave — Mon, 17 Nov 2025 05:31:36 +0000

Having many cats is good. If you feel bad, you look at the cats and you feel better, because they know that everything is just the way it is. You don’t have to be nervous about anything. And they know it. They are saviors. The more cats you have, the longer you will live. If you have a hundred cats, you will live ten times longer than if you have ten. One day, this will be known and people will have thousands of cats. It’s truly ridiculous.

Charles Bukowski (1920-1994) German-American author, poet
Interview (1987-09) by Sean Penn, “Tough Guys Write Poetry,” Interview Magazine, Vol. 17, No. 19
(Source)

Collected in Bukowski, Sunlight Here I Am (2003) [ed. David Calonne].

Bukowski, Charles -- Journal entry (21 Sep 1991), The Captain is Out to Lunch (1998)

Dave — Wed, 08 Dec 2021 14:55:32 +0000

People empty me. I have to get away to refill.

Charles Bukowski (1920-1994) German-American author, poet
Journal entry (21 Sep 1991), The Captain is Out to Lunch (1998)