178+ Charles Bukowski Quotes Unearth His Timeless Insights! (Images)

Henry Charles Bukowski (Heinrich Karl Bukowski), was a German-American poet, novelist, and short-story writer. Bukowski mainly wrote under the influence of the socio-political scenario of his home city Los Angeles.

He mainly addressed the ordinary lives of poor Americans. Bukowski has written multiple poems, short stories, and six novels, eventually publishing over 60 books during his career as a writer.

It was only after his death in 1994 that Bukowski’s work was taken into consideration widely for criticism and got the attention it needed to get while Bukowski was alive. He was also called a laureate of the American lowlife.

Charles Bukowski Quotes

  • My ambition is handicapped by laziness 
  • You have to die a few times before you can really
    live
  • The problem with the world is that intelligent people are full of doubts, while stupid ones are full of confidence
  • Some people never go crazy. What truly horrible lives they must lead
  • Do you hate people? I don’t hate them; I just feel better when they’re not around.
  • 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.
  • what matters most is how well you walk through the fire
  • I wanted the whole world or nothing
  • people so tired, mutilated either by love or no love

  • An intellectual says a simple thing the hard way. An artist says a hard thing in a simple way

  • Find what you love and let it kill you

  • If you’re losing your soul, and you know it, then you’ve still got a soul left to lose.

  • Real loneliness is not necessarily limited to when you are alone.
  • Some lose all minds and become souls, insane. Some lose all souls and become minds, intellectual.
    Some lose both and become accepted.

  • I loved you like a man loves a woman he never touches, only writes to, keeps little photographs of.

  • Being alone never felt right. Sometimes it felt good, but it never felt right.

  • I felt like crying, but nothing came out. It was just a sort of sad sickness, sick sad when you can’t feel any worse.

  • 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.

  • Those who escape hell, however, never talk about it, and nothing much bothers them after that.

  • Boring damned people. All over the earth. Propagating more boring damned people. What a horror show. The earth swarmed with them.
  • A love like that was a serious illness, an illness from which you never entirely recover.

  • 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.

  • There is a place in the heart that will never be filled

  •  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.”

  • Sorry for all the millions, but I’ve never been lonely. I like myself. I’m the best form of entertainment I have

  • No light goes out until it goes out. Let’s fight as men, not rats. Period.

  • If I stop writing, I am dead. And that’s the only way I’ll stop: dead
Charles Bukowski Quotes About Life, Love, And Women
  • If you want to know who your friends are, get yourself a jail sentence

  • Poetry is what happens when nothing else can

  • It is better to do a dull thing with style than a dangerous thing without it

  • I guess the only time most people think about injustice is when it happens to them

  • Some people like what you do, some people hate what you do, but most people simply don’t give a damn.

  • If you have the ability to love, love yourself first.

  • What matters most is how well you walk through the fire

  • There are only two things wrong with money: too much or too little.

  • Almost everybody is born a genius and buried an idiot.

  • Bad taste creates many more millionaires than good taste.

  • I would be married, but I’d have no wife; I would be married to a single life

  • In my work, as a writer, I only photograph, in words, what I see

  • It’s when you begin to lie to yourself in a poem in order to simply make a poem, that you fail

  • It’s possible to love a human being if you don’t know them too well

  • Hey baby, when I write, I’m the hero of my shit

  • Sometimes I’ve called writing a disease. If so, I’m glad that it caught me

  • Genius might be the ability to say a profound thing in a simple way 

  • Goodness can be found sometimes in the middle of hell

  • You have to die a few times before you can really live 

  • If you get married, they think you’re finished, and if you are without a woman, they think you’re incomplete 

  • What a woman wants is a reaction. What a man wants is a woman

  • I remember awakening one morning and finding everything smeared with the color of forgotten love 

  • Sex is kicking death in the ass while singing.

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

  • Writers are desperate people, and when they stop being desperate, they stop being writers. 

  • When I write, when I am going hot, I don’t want to write more than four hours in a row. After that, you are pushing it.

  • Those who have been writing literature have not been writing life. 

  • The more cats you have, the longer you live. 

  • The less I needed, the better I felt.

Charles Bukowski Quotes For Love

Charles Bukowski Quotes About Life, Love, And Women

“Love is a dog from hell.”

“I loved you like a man loves a woman he never touches, only writes to, keeps little photographs of.”

“We are here to laugh at the odds and live our lives so well that Death will tremble to take us.”

“I wanted the whole world or nothing.”

“We’re all going to die, all of us; what a circus! That alone should make us love each other, but it doesn’t.”

“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.”

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

“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.”

“An intellectual says a simple thing in a hard way. An artist says a hard thing in a simple way.”

“Sometimes you just have to pee in the sink.”

“If you’re going to try, go all the way. Otherwise, don’t even start.”

“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?'”

“The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts, while the stupid ones are full of confidence.”

“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.”

“The less I needed, the better I felt.”

“I don’t know how other men feel about their women, but I love her beyond reason. We don’t always get along but I think about her all the time. I leave her little notes and she leaves me little notes. I hardly ever feel complete, but when I’m with her, I do.”

“What matters most is how well you walk through the fire.”

“There’s nothing to mourn about death any more than there is to mourn about the growing of a flower. What is terrible is not death but the lives people live or don’t live up until their death.”

“My ambition is handicapped by laziness.”

“If you’re losing your soul and you know it, then you’ve still got a soul left to lose.”

Charles Bukowski Quotes For Women

Charles Bukowski Quotes About Life, Love, And Women

“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.”

“Some people never go crazy. What truly horrible lives they must lead.”

“We are here to laugh at the odds and live our lives so well that death will tremble to take us.”

“Find what you love and let it kill you.”

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

“There’s nothing to mourn about death any more than there is to mourn about the growing of a flower. What is terrible is not death but the lives people live or don’t live up until their death.”

“The less I needed, the better I felt.”

“An intellectual says a simple thing in a hard way. An artist says a hard thing in a simple way.”

“You have to die a few times before you can really live.”

“The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts, while the stupid ones are full of confidence.”

“If you’re going to try, go all the way. Otherwise, don’t even start.”

“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.”

“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?'”

“Sometimes you just have to pee in the sink.”

“I wanted the whole world or nothing.”

“I wasn’t a misanthrope and I wasn’t a misogynist but I liked being alone. It felt good to sit alone in a small space and smoke and drink. I had always been good company for myself.”

“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.”

“The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts, while the stupid ones are full of confidence.”

“You have to die a few times before you can really live.”

“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 Quotes About Life

Charles Bukowski Quotes About Life, Love, And Women

“Some people never go crazy. What truly horrible lives they must lead.”

“Find what you love and let it kill you.”

“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.”

“The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts, while the stupid ones are full of confidence.”

“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.”

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

“Sometimes you climb out of bed in the morning and you think, ‘I’m not gonna make it,’ but you laugh inside—remembering all the times you’ve felt that way.”

“I never met another man I’d rather be. And even if that’s a delusion, it’s a lucky one.”

“If you’re going to try, go all the way. Otherwise, don’t even start.”

“What matters most is how well you walk through the fire.”

“If you’re losing your soul and you know it, then you’ve still got a soul left to lose.”

“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?'”

“The best way to keep from going through that ‘awful period of doubt and security’ that Hemingway had to deal with, the period where he had no money and no future, was to keep Scribner’s turning out a new novel every few months.”

“An intellectual says a simple thing in a hard way. An artist says a hard thing in a simple way.”

“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.”

“My ambition is handicapped by laziness.”

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

“I don’t like jail, they got the wrong kind of bars in there.”

“I don’t believe in romantic love. Telling your partner you love them shouldn’t be a duty; it should feel natural and sincere.”

“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 Intelligent Quotes

Charles Bukowski Quotes About Life, Love, And Women

“Some people never go crazy, what truly horrible lives they must live.”

“Find what you love and let it kill you.”

“The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts, while the stupid ones are full of confidence.”

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

“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.”

“I don’t write to express an idea. I write to express myself.”

“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.”

“The less I needed, the better I felt.”

“People with no morals often considered themselves more free, but mostly they lacked the ability to feel or love.”

“I never met another man I’d rather be. And even if that’s a delusion, it’s a lucky one.”

“Genius might be the ability to say a profound thing in a simple way.”

“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.”

“I don’t like jail, they got the wrong kind of bars in there.”

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

“Sometimes you just have to pee in the sink.”

“The difference between a good artist and a great one is: the novice will often lay down his tool or brush, then pick up an invisible club on the mind’s table and helplessly smash the easels and jade.”

“I never saw a wild thing sorry for itself. A small bird will drop frozen dead from a bough without ever having felt sorry for itself.”

“My ambition is handicapped by laziness.”

“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?'”

“An intellectual says a simple thing in a hard way. An artist says a hard thing in a simple way.”

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Charles Bukowski Quotes About Life, Love, And Women

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