We have rounded up the best collection of Charles Bukowski quotes, sayings, poems, and sayings (with images and pictures) on life, love, women, survival, society, and corruption.
Some thought-provoking words by famous novelist and poet Charles Bukowski can change your perspective towards life and its different aspects.
Charles Bukowski, in full Henry Charles Bukowski, Jr., was an American author noted for his use of violent images and graphic language in poetry and fiction that depict survival in a corrupt, blighted society.
Also See: Thought Provoking Quotes
His writing was influenced by the social, cultural, and economic ambiance of his adopted home city of Los Angeles.
Some of these works include his Poems Written Before Jumping Out of an 8 Story Window, published by his friend and fellow poet Charles Potts, and better-known works such as Burning in Water and Drowning in Flame.
Post Office is the first novel written by Charles Bukowski, published in 1971 when he was 50 years old. He writes what is a semi-autobiographical account based on his own experiences.
We also have a collection of Walt Whitman quotes and Marcus Aurelius quotes to live by.
Top 10 Charles Bukowski Quotes
- “The less I needed, the better I felt.” – Charles Bukowski
- “If you have the ability to love, love yourself first.” – Charles Bukowski
- “You have to die a few times before you can really live.” – Charles Bukowski
charles bukowski quotes
- “Unless the sun inside you is burning your gut, don’t do it.” – Charles Bukowski
- “What matters most is how well you walk through the fire.” – Charles Bukowski
best charles bukowski quotes
- “If I stop writing, I am dead. And that’s the only way I’ll stop: dead.” – Charles Bukowski
- “I wasn’t much for a petty thief. I wanted the whole world or nothing.” – Charles Bukowski
- “The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts, while the stupid ones are full of confidence.” – Charles Bukowski
Famous Charles Bukowski Quotes
- “Nobody can save you but yourself and you’re worth saving. It’s a war not easily won but if anything is worth winning then this is it.” – Charles Bukowski
- “Understand me. I’m not like an ordinary world. I have my madness, I live in another dimension and I do not have time for things that have no soul.” – Charles Bukowski
Most Famous Charles Bukowski Quotes
- “Almost everybody is born a genius and buried an idiot.” – Charles Bukowski
deep charles bukowski quotes
- “True revolution comes from true revulsion; when things get bad enough the kitten will kill the lion” – Charles Bukowski
- “A spark can set a whole forest on fire. Just a spark. Save it.” – Charles Bukowski
- “There are only two things wrong with money: too much or too little.” – Charles Bukowski
- “If you want to know who your friends are, get yourself a jail sentence.” – Charles Bukowski
- “Stop insisting on clearing your head—clear your fu heart instead.” – Charles Bukowski
- “I often carry things to read so that I will not have to look at the people.” – Charles Bukowski
- “It’s better to do a dull thing with style than a dangerous thing without it.” – Charles Bukowski
- “If you’re losing your soul and you know it, then you’ve still got a soul left to lose.” – Charles Bukowski
charles bukowski soul quotes
- “I guess the only time most people think about injustice is when it happens to them.” – Charles Bukowski
thought provoking charles bukowski quotes
- “A love like that was a serious illness, an illness from which you never entirely recover.” – Charles Bukowski
- “Some people don’t like anybody who is famous. Some people don’t like anybody who isn’t.” – Charles Bukowski
- “An intellectual says a simple thing in a hard way. An artist says a hard thing in a simple way.” – Charles Bukowski
- “There is loneliness in this world so great that you can see it in the slow movement of a clock’s hand.” – Charles Bukowski
- “In the sun and in the rain, in the day and in the night, pain is a flower, pain is flowers, blooming all the time.” – Charles Bukowski
- “Some people like what you do, some people hate what you do, but most people simply don’t give a damn.” – Charles Bukowski
Deep Charles Bukowski Quotes About Life & Writing
- “Life’s as kind as you let it be.” – Charles Bukowski
- “Forget my brother, I am my own keeper.” – Charles Bukowski
- “Death comes slowly like ants to a fallen fig.” – Charles Bukowski
- “Poetry is what happens when nothing else can.” – Charles Bukowski
charles bukowski poetry quotes
- “She’s more dangerous than all the armies of all time.” – Charles Bukowski
- “Real loneliness is not necessarily limited to when you are alone.” – Charles Bukowski
charles bukowski quotes images
- “In my work, as a writer, I only photograph, in words, what I see.” – Charles Bukowski
- “It is hard to find a man whose poems don’t finally disappoint you.” – Charles Bukowski
- “It was best to stay away from other writers and just do your work…” – Charles Bukowski
- “Some people never go crazy, What truly horrible lives they must live.” – Charles Bukowski
- “Writers are desperate people and when they stop being desperate they stop being writers.” – Charles Bukowski
- “I’m just an alcoholic who became a writer so that I would be able to stay in bed until noon.” – Charles Bukowski
- “I loved you like a man loves a woman he never touches, only writes to, keeps little photographs of.” – Charles Bukowski
- “People were usually much better in their letters than in reality. They were much like poets in this way.” – Charles Bukowski
- “He asked, What makes a man a writer? Well, I said, it’s simple. You either get it down on paper, or jump off a bridge.” – Charles Bukowski
- “Somebody once asked me what my theory of life was, and I said, ‘Don’t try.’ That fits the writing, too. I don’t try; I just type.” – Charles Bukowski
- “There will always be something to ruin our lives, it all depends on what or which finds us first. We are always ripe and ready to be taken.” – Charles Bukowski
- “People are strange: they are constantly angered by trivial things, but on a major matter like totally wasting their lives, they hardly seem to notice.” – Charles Bukowski
- “The best often die by their own hand just to get away, and those left behind can never quite understand why anybody would ever want to get away from them.” – Charles Bukowski
- “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.” – Charles Bukowski
- “Hello, Death. But I’ve had almost 6 decades. I’ve given you so many clean shots at me what I should have been yours long ago. I want to be buried near the racetrack… where I can hear the stretch run.” – Charles Bukowski
Best Charles Bukowski Quotes That You Must Read
These meaningful soul stirring writings of Charles Bukowski will make you think deep about loneliness, love, loneliness, and women.
Also See: Best Soul Quotes
Charles’ philosophy of life was; “an artist was to not waste time in convincing himself to do something, but doing it.
If it doesn’t come naturally to you and you have to keep trying to convince yourself to create something, then it’s simply not meant for you.”
- “Dogs and angels are not very far apart.” – Charles Bukowski
- “People run from rain but sit in bathtubs full of water.” – Charles Bukowski
- “Baby, I said, I’m a genius but nobody knows it but me.” – Charles Bukowski
- “We drink our coffee and pretend not to look at each other.” – Charles Bukowski
- “We really had nothing to do but drink wine and love.” – Charles Bukowski
- “I want so much that is not here and do not know where to go.” – Charles Bukowski
- “Beware of those who seek constant crowds; they are nothing alone.” – Charles Bukowski
- “Look at his hands. He has the most beautiful hands. You can see that he has never worked.” – Charles Bukowski
- “But your eyes –– they’re beautiful. They’re wild, crazy, like some animal peering out of a forest on fire.” – Charles Bukowski
- “If you get married they think you’re finished and if you are without a woman they think you’re incomplete.” – Charles Bukowski
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- “You begin saving the world by saving one man at a time; all else is grandiose romanticism or politics.” – Charles Bukowski
- “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
- “The nine-to-five is one of the greatest atrocities sprung upon mankind. You give your life away to a function that doesn’t interest you.” – Charles Bukowski
- “And yet women –– good women –– frightened me because they eventually wanted your soul, and what was left of mine, I wanted to keep.” – Charles Bukowski
- “How the hell could a person enjoy being awakened at 6:30AM, 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
Inspirational Charles Bukowski Quotes
- “Fiction is an improvement on life.” – Charles Bukowski
- “Find what you love and let it kill you.” – Charles Bukowski
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- “I am going to die alone just the way I live.” – Charles Bukowski
- “Watching the bull get the matador, that’s the best.” – Charles Bukowski
- “Cheer up. Maybe you’ll be famous after you’re dead.” – Charles Bukowski
- “There is always one woman to save you from another.” – Charles Bukowski
- “Bad taste creates many more millionaires than good taste.” – Charles Bukowski
- “Genius might be the ability to say a profound thing in a simple way.” – Charles Bukowski
quotes from bukowski
- “And you invented me and I invented you and that’s why we don’t get along.” – Charles Bukowski
- “And nobody finds the one but they keep looking crawling in and out of beds.” – Charles Bukowski
- “My 6 foot goddess makes me laugh the laughter of the mutilated who still need love.” – Charles Bukowski
- “They disgust me, the way they wait for death with as much passion as a traffic signal.” – Charles Bukowski
- “I heard a long insane wail like a wolverine shot in the arctic snow and left to bleed and die alone…” – Charles Bukowski
- “There isn’t a better way to drink than at a small table over a white tablecloth with a good-looking woman.” – Charles Bukowski
- “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.” – Charles Bukowski
- “I saw a beautiful blonde girl embrace a young man there and kiss him with what seemed hunger and I stood and watched until they broke away.” – Charles Bukowski
- “That’s what they want: a God damned shows a lit billboard in the middle of hell. That’s what they want, that bunch of dull inarticulate safe, dreary admirers of carnivals.” – Charles Bukowski
More About Charles Bukowski;
Born: August 16, 1920 Andernach, Prussia, Germany
Died: March 9, 1994 (aged 73) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Nationality: German / American
Occupation: Poet novelist short story writer columnist
In total, Charles Bukowski wrote over 4690 unique works, including poems, short stories, and novels.
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