Quotes by Charles Bukowski

“We’ve each given the hours of our lives in dull rote jobs for other men’s profit, and have been asked to be grateful for doing that.”

“Animals are inspirational. They don’t know how to lie. They are natural forces.”

“now look, she said, stretched out on the bed, I don’t want anything personal, let’s just do it, I don’t want to get involved, got it? she kicked off her high-heeled shoes… sure, he said, standing t...”

“Cats tell me without effort all that there is to know.”

“Having a bunch of cats around is good. If you're feeling bad, just look at the cats, you'll feel better, because they know that everything is, just as it is.”

“The cat is the beutiful devil. And here we can use the word, even without the “a.”- from a Dec. 21 1960, a letter to Sheri Martinelli"On Cats”

“I felt like a still live fish on ice in a butcher’s counter on Friday morning.- On Cats”

“Human relationships were strange. I mean, you were with one person a while, eating and sleeping and living with them, loving them, talking to them, going places together, and then it stopped. Then ...”

“I was like a turd that drew flies instead of like a flower that butterflies and bees desired. I wanted to live alone,I felt best being alone, cleaner,,,”

“I kept telling myself that all the women in the world weren´t whores, just mine.”

“The cat is the beautiful devil.”

“Potential," I said, "doesn't mean a thing. You've got to do it. Almost every baby in a crib has more potential than I have.”

“But then if you lied to a man about his talent just because he was sitting across from you, that was the most unforgivable lie of them all, because that was telling him to go on, to continue which ...”

“Hell, I'd even failed with women. Three wives. Nothing really wrong each time. It all got destroyed by petty bickering. Railing about nothing. Getting pissed-off over anything and everything. Day b...”

“I went over to see Marina two or three or four times a week. I knew as long as I could see the girl I would be all right…. Soon after, I got a letter from Fay. She and the child were living in a hi...”

“Never bring a lot of money to where a poor man lives. He can only lose what little he has. On the other hand it is mathematically possible that he might win whatever you bring with you. What you mu...”

“First paycheck I get, I thought, I'm going to get myself a room near the downtown L.A. Public Library.”

“There is always somebody about to ruin your day, if not your life.”

“I think I need a drink.''Almost everybody does only they don't know it.”

“I had never been a dresser. My shirts were all faded and shrunken, 5 or 6 years old, threadbare. My pants the same. I hated department stores, I hated the clerks, they acted so superior, they seeme...”