01c. 1957 ADNow something so sad has hold of us that the breath leaves and we can't even cry.Charles Bukowski / quote ↗
02c. 1957 ADthere’s nothing todiscussthere’s nothing torememberthere’s nothing toforgetit’s sadand it’s notsadseems themost sensiblethinga person can doissitwith drink inhandas the wallswavetheir goodbyesmilesone comes throughit allwith a certain amount ofefficiency andbraverythenleavessome acceptthe possibility ofGodto help themgetthroughotherstake itstaight onand to theseI drink tonight.Charles Bukowski / quote ↗
03c. 1957 ADnow it’s computers and more computersand soon everybody will have one,3-year-olds will have computersand everybody will know everythingabout everybody elselong before they meet them.nobody will want to meet anybodyelse ever againand everybody will bea recluselike I am now.Charles Bukowski / quote ↗
04c. 1957 ADOnce in a rare lifetime have you ever been in a roomful of people who only helped you when you looked at them, listened to them. this was one of those magic times. I knew it.Charles Bukowski / quote ↗
06c. 1957 ADHey, Hank, I notice all the women around your place lately ... good looking stuff; you're doing all right.""Sam," I say, "that's not true; I am one of God's most lonely men.Charles Bukowski / quote ↗
07c. 1957 ADI could never acceptlife as it was,I could never gobbledown all itspoisonsbu there were parts,tenuous magic partsopen for theasking.Charles Bukowski / quote ↗
08c. 1957 ADShe had wild eyes, slightly insane. She also carried an overload of compassion that was real enough and which obviously cost her something.Charles Bukowski / quote ↗
10c. 1957 ADI've never been lonely. I've been in a room -- I've felt suicidal. I've been depressed. I've felt awful -- awful beyond all -- but I never felt that one other person could enter that room and cure what was bothering me...or that any number of people could enter that room. In other words, loneliness is something I've never been bothered with because I've always had this terrible itch for solitude. It's being at a party, or at a stadium full of people cheering for something, that I might feel loneliness. I'll quote Ibsen, "The strongest men are the most alone." I've never thought, "Well, some beautiful blonde will come in here and give me a fuck-job, rub my balls, and I'll feel good." No, that won't help. You know the typical crowd, "Wow, it's Friday night, what are you going to do? Just sit there?" Well, yeah. Because there's nothing out there. It's stupidity. Stupid people mingling with stupid people. Let them stupidify themselves. I've never been bothered with the need to rush out into the night. I hid in bars, because I didn't want to hide in factories. That's all. Sorry for all the millions, but I've never been lonely. I like myself. I'm the best form of entertainment I have. Let's drink more wine!Charles Bukowski / quote ↗
11c. 1957 ADbeing alone never felt right. sometimes it felt good, but it never felt right.Charles Bukowski / quote ↗
12c. 1957 ADthere is a loneliness in this world so great that you can see it in the slow movement of the hands of a clockCharles Bukowski / quote ↗
13c. 1957 ADPeople 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.Charles Bukowski / quote ↗
14c. 1957 ADI often stood in front of the mirror alone, wondering how ugly a person could get.Charles Bukowski / quote ↗
16c. 1957 ADdarkness falls upon Humanityand faces become terriblethingsthat wanted more than therewas.all our days are marked withunexpectedaffronts - somedisastrous, othersless sobut the process iswearing andcontinuous.attrition rules.most givewayleavingempty spaceswhere people shouldbe.and nowas we ready to self-destructthere is very little left tokillwhich makes the tragedyless and moremuch muchmore.Charles Bukowski / quote ↗
17c. 1957 ADsometimes all we need to be able to continue aloneare the deadrattling the wallsthat close us in.Charles Bukowski / quote ↗
19c. 1957 ADI went to the worst of bars hoping to get killed but all I could do was to get drunk again.Charles Bukowski / quote ↗
20c. 1957 ADwe know God is dead, they’ toldus, but listening to you I wasn’ sure. maybeit was the upper case. you were one of thebest female poets and I told the publishers, editors, “ her, print her, she’ mad but she’magic. there’ no lie in her fire.” I loved youlike a man loves a woman he never touches, onlywrites to, keeps little photographs of. I would haveloved you more if I had sat in a small room rolling acigarette and listened to you piss in the bathroom,but that didn’ happen. your letters got sadder.your lovers betrayed you. kid, I wrote back, alllovers betray. it didn’ help. you saidyou had a crying bench and it was by a bridge andthe bridge was over a river and you sat on the cryingbench every night and wept for the lovers who hadhurt and forgotten you. I wrote back but neverheard again. a friend wrote me of your suicide3 or 4 months after it happened. if I had met youI would probably have been unfair to you or youto me. it was best like this.Charles Bukowski / quote ↗
21c. 1957 ADWhy does a man destroy himself or what destroys him? I would have to judge that suicide is mostly the tool of the thinking man. The right to suicide should be the same as the right to love.Charles Bukowski / quote ↗
23c. 1957 ADThere is nothing that teaches you more than regrouping after failure and moving on. Yet most people are stricken with fear. They fear failure so much that they fail.Charles Bukowski / quote ↗
24c. 1957 ADShe was perfect, pure maddening sex, and she knew it, and she played on it, dripped it, and allowed you to suffer for it.Charles Bukowski / quote ↗
