Charles Bukowski

"When I was young I was depressed all the time. But suicide no longer seemed a possibility in my life. At my age there was very little left to kill. It was good to be old, no matter what they said. It was reasonable that a man had to be at least 50 years old before he could write with anything like clarity."

"It wasn’t my day. My week. My month. My year. My life. God damn it."

"Writing is something that you don't know how to do. You sit down and it's something that happens, or it may not happen. So, how can you teach anybody how to write? It's beyond me, because you yourself don't even know if you're going to be able to. I'm always worried, well, you know, every time I go upstairs with my wine bottle. Sometimes I'll sit at that typewriter for fifteen minutes, you know. I don't go up there to write. The typewriter's up there. If it doesn't start moving, I say, well this could be the night that I hit the dust."

"unless the sun inside you is burning your gut, don't do it"

"What is your advice to young writers? Drink, fuck and smoke plenty of cigarettes."

"the writing of somemenis like a vast bridgethat carries youoverthe many thingsthat claw and tear. The Wine of Forever"

"nothing can save you except writing. it keeps the walls from failing."

"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."

"Life wore a man out, wore a man thin. Tomorrow would be a better day."

"the way to create art is to burn and destroyordinary concepts and to substitute themwith new truths that run down from the top of the headand out of the heart"

"“the worst thing, he told me,is bitterness, people end up sobitter.”"

"“having nothing to struggleagainstthey have nothing to strugglefor.”"

"“when we were kidslaying around the lawnon ourbellies we often talkedabouthowwe'd like todie andwe allagreed on thesamething; we'd alllike to diefucking (althoughnone of ushaddone anyfucking) and nowthatwe are hardlykidsany longer we think moreabouthownot todie andalthoughwe'reready most ofuswouldprefer todo italone under thesheets nowthat most ofus have fuckedour livesaway.”"

"“some men neverdieand some men neverlivebut we're all alivetonight.”"

"“when I am feelinglowall i have to do iswatch my catsand mycouragereturns”"

"“regret is mostly caused by not havingdone anything.”"

"“I often stood in front of the mirror alone, wondering how ugly a person could get.”"

"“some moments are nice, some arenicer, some are even worthwritingabout.”"

"Style is the answer to everything. A fresh way to approach a dull or dangerous thing To do a dull thing with style is preferable to doing a dangerous thing without it To do a dangerous thing with style is what I call art Bullfighting can be an art Boxing can be an art Loving can be an art Opening a can of sardines can be an art Not many have style Not many can keep style I have seen dogs with more style than men,although not many dogs have style. Cats have it with abundance. When Hemingway put his brains to the wall with a shotgun,that was style. Or sometimes people give you style Joan of Arc had style John the Baptist Jesus Socrates Caesar García Lorca. I have met men in jail with style. I have met more men in jail with style than men out of jail. Style is the difference, a way of doing, a way of being done. Six herons standing quietly in a pool of water,or you, naked, walking out of the bathroom without seeing me."

"“Poetry is what happens when nothing else can.”"