02c. 1957 ADI write fiction""What’s fiction?""Fiction is an improvement on life.Charles Bukowski / quote ↗
03c. 1957 ADI guess I´m too used to sitting in a small room and making words do a few things. I see enough of humanity at the racetracks, the supermarkets, gas stations, freeways, cafes, etc. This can´t be helped. But I feel like kicking myself in the ass when I go to gatherings, even if the drinks are free. It never works for me. I´ve got enough clay to play with. People empty me. I have to get away to refill. I´m what´s best for me, sitting here slouched, smoking a beedie and watching this creen flash the words. Seldom do you meet a rare or interesting person. It´s more than galling, it´s a fucking constant shock. It´s making a god-damned grouch out of me. Anybody can be a god-damned grouch and most are. Help!Charles Bukowski / quote ↗
04c. 1957 ADThe old gal was only another lonely creature in a world that didn’t careCharles Bukowski / quote ↗
06c. 1957 ADI feel no grief for being called somethingwhichI am not;in fact, it's enthralling, somehow, like a goodback rubCharles Bukowski / quote ↗
07c. 1957 ADit is so dark now with the sadness ofpeoplethey were tricked, they were taught to expect theultimate when nothing ispromisednow young girls weep alone in small roomsold men angrily swing their canes atvisions asladies comb their hair asants search for survivalhistory surrounds usand our livesslink awayinshame.Charles Bukowski / quote ↗
08c. 1957 ADwe are burning like a chicken wing left on the grill of an outdoor barbecuewe are unwanted and burning we are burning and unwanted we arean unwantedburningas we sizzle and fryto the bonethe coals of Dante's 'Inferno' spit and sputter beneathus andabove the sky is an open hand andthe words of wise men are uselessit's not a nice world, a nice world it's not ...Charles Bukowski / quote ↗
10c. 1957 ADthe price of creationis nevertoo high.the price of livingwith other peoplealwaysis.Charles Bukowski / quote ↗
11c. 1957 ADthe world is better withoutthem.only the plants and the animals aretrue comrades.I drink to them and withthem.Charles Bukowski / quote ↗
12c. 1957 ADWhether I was a genius or not did not so much concern me as the fact that I simply did not want a part of anything. The animal-drive and energy of my fellow man amazed me: that a man could change tires all day long or drive an ice cream truck or run for Congress or cut into a man's guts in surgery or murder, this was all beyond me. I did not want to begin. I still don't. Any day I that I could cheat away from this system of living seemed a good victory for me.Charles Bukowski / quote ↗
13c. 1957 ADthere are so many dayswhen living stops and pulls up and sitsand waits like a train on the rails.Charles Bukowski / quote ↗
14c. 1957 ADLife wore a man out, wore a man thin.Tomorrow would be a better day.Charles Bukowski / quote ↗
16c. 1957 ADThere was no sense to life, to the structure of things. D.H. Lawrence had known that. You needed love, but not the kind of love most people used and were used up by. Old D.H. had known something. His buddy Huxley was just an intellectual fidget, but what a marvelous one. Better than G.B. Shaw with that hard keel of a mind always scraping bottom, his labored wit finally only a task, a burden on himself, preventing him from really feeling anything, his brilliant speech finally a bore, scraping the mind and the sensibilities. It was good to read them all though. It made you realize that thoughts and words could be fascinating, if finally useless.Charles Bukowski / quote ↗
17c. 1957 ADWell it’s good to have a car like that, once in a while somebody’ll say, ‘why don’t you come over for dinner?’ and I can just say, ‘Car won’t make it.’ I don’t have to tell them that time is scarcer than young pussy around here, and I don’t mean time to write POETRY. I mean time to lay in bed, alone, and stare up at the ceiling and not think at all, not at all, not at all…Charles Bukowski / quote ↗
22c. 1957 ADThere's a light somewhere.It may not be much light butit beats the darkness.Charles Bukowski / quote ↗
23c. 1957 ADI know that some nightin some bedroomsoonmy fingers willriftthroughsoft cleanhairsongs such as no radioplaysall sadness, grinninginto flow.Charles Bukowski / quote ↗
24c. 1957 ADIf you're going to try, go all the way. Otherwise, don't even start. This could mean losing girlfriends, wives, relatives and maybe even your mind. It could mean not eating for three or four days. It could mean freezing on a park bench. It could mean jail. It could mean derision. It could mean mockery--isolation. Isolation is the gift. All the others are a test of your endurance, of how much you really want to do it. And, you'll do it, despite rejection and the worst odds. And it will be better than anything else you can imagine. 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.Charles Bukowski / quote ↗
