We had decided to send medicine to Africa; but on all of them was written "on a full stomach".
Love is a fog that will disappear at the first light of reality.
It is true that I am not determined, but there must be a place for those who are not determined to live, I mean a better place than the existing ones. Wake up at half past six in the morning to the sound of an alarm clock, jump out of bed, get dressed, have a bite to eat, shit, go to work, brush your teeth, comb your hair, get into terrible traffic to make someone else big bucks and be thankful for the opportunity you've been given.
I can be happy with the little things too, but I'm too lazy to pull those little things out amidst all this shit.
As anyone who knows me will tell you, I am not an agreeable person. I've always loved the bad guy, the vigilante, the scoundrel. I don't like guys with a good job, a shaven fly, and a tie. I like hopeless men, broken teeth, broken minds, broken roads. They interest me. They are full of little surprises and explosions. I also like mean women; from women with sagging stockings, with runny make-up, drunk and abusive. I'm more interested in heretics than saints. I'm comfortable with vagrants, because I'm a vagrant too. I don't like laws, I don't like morals, I don't like religion, I don't like rules. I don't like the way society shapes me.
I'd rather be a fly landed in shit than a butterfly on a flower.
I comb my hair, I wish I could comb my face too.
Real; It is an orange eaten without water.
After someone told me I was ugly; I used to prefer the shadow to the sun, the darkness to the light.
Borrow my woman but never my car.
Time does not make you forget, it makes you numb.
I don't know about you, but every morning when I bend down to tie my shoes, "God again?" I'll pass it on
The girls looked good from afar, the sun was shining in their dresses and hair. But when I got close and listened to their brains flowing out of their mouths, I wanted to get armed and hide underground.
Balanced people are crazy.
If you don't gamble, you will never win.
Wonderful thoughts and wonderful women are not permanent.
You can catch a tiger and put it in a cage, but you can never be sure of breaking it. People are easier.
There are no angels in the pits of refuge.
Not feeling pain means interruption of emotions; every enthusiasm is a bargain with the devil.
The difference between Life and Art is that art is more bearable.
Nothing can be as boring as the truth.
Almost everyone is born a genius, a retard is buried.
Brave people have limited imagination. Cowardice is the result of malnutrition.
Sexual intercourse; kicking death's ass while singing.
When sovereignty truly belongs to the nation, there will be no need for governments; until then we fucked up.
Intellectual; a person who can say a simple thing in a complex; an artist makes something difficult easy…
Dripping faucets, passion farts, and flat tires - all sadder than death...
If you want to know who your friend is, go to jail.
A metropolitan newspaper measures its own pulse before it writes bad news.
When you're gone you cry, you cry over songs, movies, her-that, everything. When you come to your senses, you cry for the time you wasted.
It's true that the goddess of fate is cruel and will eventually ditch us all; but there is nothing more intimidating than a firm, immortal loser. The secret lies in this; Anyone can lose, losing is the easiest of skills.
Of course you can love a person if you don't know him well enough.
I can see the lights of the cars driving on the highway. An endless stream of light. So many people. What do they do? What do they think? We're all going to die, all of us, what a circus! Knowing that should be reason enough for us to love each other more, but it isn't. Extremely trivial things drive us down into horror, flatter us, swallow us up.
On the way home from the factory or warehouse, exhausted, the night seemed useless except to eat, sleep, and return to miserable work. But that typewriter would be waiting for me in an old room with torn curtains and worn rugs, with the toilet and the tub at the end of the hall, and in the air of all the lost ones who had come before me.
Being human was a disgrace; There was so much going on.
There are worse things in life than being alone, but it usually takes a lifetime to realize that then it's too late, and there's nothing worse than being too late.
The first poems are more lyrical from where I am now. I like these poems, but I disagree with those who claim that “Bukowski's early poems were much better.” Some have voiced these claims in their critiques, others in gossip chats. Now the reader can make his own decision firsthand. In today's poem, I tend to the subject more directly and get to its essence, and then I go out. I do not believe that my previous and current styles are superior or unsuccessful. They're different, that's all.
Love is a path with some meaning; sex is meaningful enough.
Only boring people get bored.
Never waste your time on someone who doesn't make time for you.
Life is such a damn thing; When you are silent, he regrets that you did not speak, and when you speak, he is devastated for not being silent.
The shortest moment is a miracle.
When money is not like sex, it becomes more important.
I've extended my life by ten years, not caring what people think of me.
