Charles Bukowski Quotes 1–30 of 65 Quotes

Charles Bukowski (16 August 1920 – 9 March 1994) was a Los Angeles, California poet and novelist sometimes mistakenly associated with Beat Generation writers because of alleged similarities of style and attitude. Bukowski's writing was heavily influenced by the geography and atmosphere of his home city of Los Angeles. He wrote more than fifty books and countless smaller pieces. He is often mentioned as an influence by contemporary authors and his style is frequently imitated.

Below are 30 of 65 sourced Charles Bukowski quotes. Sources and related information appear under each quote. Use the 'Cite this quote' link to get citation references.

“It's 4:30 in the morning, it's always 4:30 in the morning.”

— Charles Bukowski

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Bukowski, Charles. “Charles Bukowski Quotes: 1–30 of 65 Quotes.” QuotesCosmos.com, Last modified August 5, 2021. https://www.quotescosmos.com/people/Charles-Bukowski-quotes.html#1

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Bukowski, Charles. “Charles Bukowski Quotes: 1–30 of 65 Quotes.” Last modified August 5, 2021. https://www.quotescosmos.com/people/Charles-Bukowski-quotes.html#1

Quote source: Rooming House Madrigals (1954)

“Van Gogh writing his brother for paints Hemingway testing his shotgun Celine going broke as a doctor of medicine the impossibility of being human Shakespeare a plagiarist Beethoven with a horn stuck into his head against deafness the impossibility the impossibility Nietzsche gone totally mad the impossibility of being human all too human this breathing in and out out and in these punks these cowards these champions these mad dogs of glory moving this little bit of light toward us impossibly.”

— Charles Bukowski

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Quote source: "Beasts Bounding Through Time" (1986)

“I've never met another man I'd rather be.”

— Charles Bukowski

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Bukowski, Charles. “Charles Bukowski Quotes: 1–30 of 65 Quotes.” Last modified August 5, 2021. https://www.quotescosmos.com/people/Charles-Bukowski-quotes.html#3

Quote source: in Bukowski: Born Into This (2002)

“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

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Bukowski, Charles. “Charles Bukowski Quotes: 1–30 of 65 Quotes.” Last modified August 5, 2021. https://www.quotescosmos.com/people/Charles-Bukowski-quotes.html#4

Quote source: in Sunlight Here I Am: Interviews and Encounters, 1963-1993 (2003), p. 24

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

— Charles Bukowski

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Source: • Source: Wikiquote: "Charles Bukowski" (Quotes:
listed chronologically, Notes of a Dirty Old Man (1969))

“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

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Source: • Source: Wikiquote: "Charles Bukowski" (Quotes:
listed chronologically, Notes of a Dirty Old Man (1969))

“I was given the job of milking the cows, finally, and it got me up earlier than anybody. But it was kind of nice, pulling at those cows' tits (pg. 172).”

— Charles Bukowski

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Source: • Source: Wikiquote: "Charles Bukowski" (Quotes:
listed chronologically, Tales of ordinary madness (1967-83))

“Show me a man who lives alone and has a perpetually clean kitchen, and eight times out of nine I'll show you a man with detestable spiritual qualities.”

— Charles Bukowski

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Source: • Source: Wikiquote: "Charles Bukowski" (Quotes:
listed chronologically, Tales of ordinary madness (1967-83))

“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.”

— Charles Bukowski

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Source: • Source: Wikiquote: "Charles Bukowski" (Quotes:
listed chronologically, Tales of ordinary madness (1967-83))

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“But I couldn't help thinking, god, all these mailmen do is drop in letters and get laid. This is the job for me, oh yes yes yes.”

— Charles Bukowski

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Source: • Source: Wikiquote: "Charles Bukowski" (Quotes:
listed chronologically, Post Office (1971))

“I didn't even have a uniform, just a cap. I wore my regular clothes. The way my shackjob Betty and I drank there was hardly money for clothes.”

— Charles Bukowski

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Source: • Source: Wikiquote: "Charles Bukowski" (Quotes:
listed chronologically, Post Office (1971))

“I thought about taking a shower but I could see the headlines: MAILMAN CAUGHT DRINKING THE BLOOD OF GOD AND TAKING A SHOWER, NAKED, IN A ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. ...I found out later that mail for the church was delivered to the parish house around the corner. But now, of course, I knew where to... shower when I'm down and out.”

— Charles Bukowski

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Source: • Source: Wikiquote: "Charles Bukowski" (Quotes:
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“It was the poor part of town—small houses and courts with mailboxes full of spiders, mailboxes hanging by one nail, old women inside rolling cigarettes and chewing tobacco and humming to their canaries and watching you, an idiot lost in the rain.”

— Charles Bukowski

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Source: • Source: Wikiquote: "Charles Bukowski" (Quotes:
listed chronologically, Post Office (1971))

“"Any damn fool can beg up some kind of job; it takes a wise man to make it without working."”

— Charles Bukowski

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Source: • Source: Wikiquote: "Charles Bukowski" (Quotes:
listed chronologically, Post Office (1971))

“"They wouldn't fire me. Even the salesmen liked me. They were robbing the boss out the back door but I didn't say anything. That was their little game. It didn't interest me. I wasn't much of a petty thief. I wanted the whole world or nothing."”

— Charles Bukowski

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Source: • Source: Wikiquote: "Charles Bukowski" (Quotes:
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“"Wouldn't you like to come in and have a cup of tea and dry off?" "Lady, don't you realize that we don't even have time to pull up our shorts?" "Pull up your shorts?" "YES, PULL UP OUR SHORTS!" I screamed at her and walked off into the wall of water.”

— Charles Bukowski

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Source: • Source: Wikiquote: "Charles Bukowski" (Quotes:
listed chronologically, Post Office (1971))

““Look, you're small-town. I've had over 50 jobs, maybe a hundred. I've never stayed anywhere long. What I am trying to say is, there is a certain game played in offices all over America. The people are bored, they don't know what to do, so they play the office-romance game. Most of the time it means nothing but the passing of time. Sometimes they do manage to work off a screw or two on the side. But even then, it is just an offhand pasttime, like bowling or t.v. or a New Year's Eve party. You've got to understand that it doesn't mean anything and then you won't get hurt. Do you understand what I mean?"”

— Charles Bukowski

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Source: • Source: Wikiquote: "Charles Bukowski" (Quotes:
listed chronologically, Post Office (1971))

“"Fay had a spot of blood on the left side of her mouth and I took a wet cloth and wiped it off. Women were meant to suffer; no wonder they asked for constant declarations of love.””

— Charles Bukowski

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Bukowski, Charles. “Charles Bukowski Quotes: 1–30 of 65 Quotes.” QuotesCosmos.com, edited by QuotesCosmos, 5 August 2021, https://www.quotescosmos.com/people/Charles-Bukowski-quotes.html#19

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Source: • Source: Wikiquote: "Charles Bukowski" (Quotes:
listed chronologically, Post Office (1971))

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“I got into bed, opened the bottle, worked the pillow into a hard knot behind my back, took a deep breath, and sat in the dark looking out of the window. It was the first time I had been alone for five days. I was a man who thrived on solitude; without it I was like another man without food or water. Each day without solitude weakened me. I took no pride in my solitude; but I was dependent on it. The darkness of the room was like sunlight to me. I took a drink of wine.”

— Charles Bukowski

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Bukowski, Charles. “Charles Bukowski Quotes: 1–30 of 65 Quotes.” Last modified August 5, 2021. https://www.quotescosmos.com/people/Charles-Bukowski-quotes.html#21

Quote source: Ch. 17

“"You have a very strange face," she said. "You're not really ugly." "Number four shipping clerk, working his way up." "Have you ever been in love?" "Love is for real people." "You sound real." "I dislike real people." "You dislike them?" "I hate them." We drank some more, not saying much. It continued to snow. Gertrude turned her head and stared into the crowd of people. Then she looked at me. "Isn't he handsome?" "Who?" "That soldier over there. He's sitting alone. He sits so straight. And he's got all his medals on." "Come on, let's get out of here."”

— Charles Bukowski

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Bukowski, Charles. “Charles Bukowski Quotes: 1–30 of 65 Quotes.” QuotesCosmos.com, edited by QuotesCosmos, 5 August 2021, https://www.quotescosmos.com/people/Charles-Bukowski-quotes.html#22

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Bukowski, Charles. “Charles Bukowski Quotes: 1–30 of 65 Quotes.” Last modified August 5, 2021. https://www.quotescosmos.com/people/Charles-Bukowski-quotes.html#22

Quote source: Ch. 27

“That was all a man needed: hope. It was a lack of hope that discouraged a man. I remembered my New Orleans days, living on two five-cent candy bars a day for weeks at a time in order to have leisure to write. But starvation, unfortunately, didn't improve art. It only hindered it. A man's soul was rooted in his stomach. A man could write much better after eating a porterhouse steak and drinking a pint of whiskey than he could ever write after eating a nickel candy bar. The myth of the starving artist was a hoax.”

— Charles Bukowski

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Bukowski, Charles. “Charles Bukowski Quotes: 1–30 of 65 Quotes.” Last modified August 5, 2021. https://www.quotescosmos.com/people/Charles-Bukowski-quotes.html#23

Quote source: Ch. 29

“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. So I stayed in bed and drank. When you drank the world was still out there, but for the moment it didn't have you by the throat.”

— Charles Bukowski

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Bukowski, Charles. “Charles Bukowski Quotes: 1–30 of 65 Quotes.” Last modified August 5, 2021. https://www.quotescosmos.com/people/Charles-Bukowski-quotes.html#24

Quote source: Ch. 31

“"Baby," I said. "I'm a genius but nobody knows it but me."”

— Charles Bukowski

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Bukowski, Charles. “Charles Bukowski Quotes: 1–30 of 65 Quotes.” QuotesCosmos.com, edited by QuotesCosmos, 5 August 2021, https://www.quotescosmos.com/people/Charles-Bukowski-quotes.html#25

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Bukowski, Charles. “Charles Bukowski Quotes: 1–30 of 65 Quotes.” Last modified August 5, 2021. https://www.quotescosmos.com/people/Charles-Bukowski-quotes.html#25

Quote source: Ch. 31

“"Someday," I told Jan, "when they demonstrate that the world has four dimensions instead of just three, a man will be able to go for a walk and just disappear. No burial, no tears, no illusions, no heaven or hell. People will be sitting around and they'll say, 'What happened to George?' And somebody will say, 'Well, I don't know. He said he was going out for a pack of cigarettes.”

— Charles Bukowski

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Bukowski, Charles. “Charles Bukowski Quotes: 1–30 of 65 Quotes.” Last modified August 5, 2021. https://www.quotescosmos.com/people/Charles-Bukowski-quotes.html#26

Quote source: Ch. 42

“My ambition is handicapped by my laziness.”

— Charles Bukowski

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Bukowski, Charles. “Charles Bukowski Quotes: 1–30 of 65 Quotes.” QuotesCosmos.com, edited by QuotesCosmos, 5 August 2021, https://www.quotescosmos.com/people/Charles-Bukowski-quotes.html#27

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Bukowski, Charles. “Charles Bukowski Quotes: 1–30 of 65 Quotes.” Last modified August 5, 2021. https://www.quotescosmos.com/people/Charles-Bukowski-quotes.html#27

Quote source: Ch. 45, Manny

“"I've given you my time. It's all I've got to give - it's all any man has. And for a pitiful buck and a quarter an hour."... "my time so that you can live in your big house on the hill and have all the things that go with it. If anybody has lost anything on this deal, on this arrangement... I've been the loser.”

— Charles Bukowski

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Bukowski, Charles (2021, August 5) Charles Bukowski Quotes: 1–30 of 65 Quotes. Retrieved from https://www.quotescosmos.com/people/Charles-Bukowski-quotes.html#28

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Bukowski, Charles. “Charles Bukowski Quotes: 1–30 of 65 Quotes.” QuotesCosmos.com, edited by QuotesCosmos, 5 August 2021, https://www.quotescosmos.com/people/Charles-Bukowski-quotes.html#28

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Bukowski, Charles. “Charles Bukowski Quotes: 1–30 of 65 Quotes.” Last modified August 5, 2021. https://www.quotescosmos.com/people/Charles-Bukowski-quotes.html#28

Quote source: Ch. 49, Henry Chinaski

“I had first learned that I was an idiot in the school yard. I was taunted and poked at and jeered, as were the other one or two idiots. My only advantage over the other one or two, two idiots. My only advantage over the other one or two, who were beaten and chasen, was that I was sullen. When surrounded I was not terrified. They never attacked me but would finally turn on one of the others and beat them as I watched.”

— Charles Bukowski

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Bukowski, Charles (2021, August 5) Charles Bukowski Quotes: 1–30 of 65 Quotes. Retrieved from https://www.quotescosmos.com/people/Charles-Bukowski-quotes.html#29

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Bukowski, Charles. “Charles Bukowski Quotes: 1–30 of 65 Quotes.” QuotesCosmos.com, edited by QuotesCosmos, 5 August 2021, https://www.quotescosmos.com/people/Charles-Bukowski-quotes.html#29

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Bukowski, Charles. “Charles Bukowski Quotes: 1–30 of 65 Quotes.” Last modified August 5, 2021. https://www.quotescosmos.com/people/Charles-Bukowski-quotes.html#29

Quote source: Ch. 52

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MLA Citation: Use MLA (Modern Language Association) style for the humanities, especially language and literature.

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