Charles Bukowski
Simplicity is always the secret, to a profound truth, to doing things, to writing, to painting. Life is profound in its simplicity.Collection: Simplicity
“Baby,” I said, “I’m a genius but nobody knows it but me.”Collection: Genius
If you are going to try, go all the way or don’t even start. If you follow it you will be alive with the gods. It is the only good fight there is.Collection: Fighting
The free soul is rare, but you know it when you see it.Collection: Soul
My ambition is handicapped by laziness.Collection: Ambition
Love breaks my bones and I laugh.Collection: Laughing
In New York you’ve got to have all the luck.Collection: Luck
It was a joy! Words weren’t dull, words were things that could make your mind hum. If you read them and let yourself feel the magic, you could live without pain, with hope, no matter what happened to you.Collection: Reading
It was like the beginning of life and laughter. It was the real meaning of the sun.Collection: Real
If I’m an ass, I should say so. If I don’t, somebody else will. If I say it first, that disarms them.Collection: Firsts
To experience real agony is something hard to write about, impossible to understand while it grips you; you’re frightened out of your wits, can’t sit still, move, or even go decently insane.Collection: Real
As a recluse I couldn’t bear traffic. It had nothing to do with jealousy, I simply disliked people, crowds, anywhere, except at my readings. People diminished me, they sucked me dry.Collection: Reading
I could read the great books but the great books don’t interest me.Collection: Book
Turgenev was a very serious fellow but he could make me laugh because a truth first encountered can be very funny. When someone else’s truth is the same as your truth, and he seems to be saying it just for you, that’s great.Collection: Firsts