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Charles Bukowski

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We don’t even ask happiness, just a little less pain.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Happiness
and our few good times will be rare because we have the critical sense
and are not easy to fool with laughter
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Happiness
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.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Life
I carry death in my left pocket. Sometimes I take it out and talk to it: "Hello, baby, how you doing? When you coming for me? I'll be ready.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Death
when we were kids
laying around the lawn
on our
bellies

we often talked
about
how
we'd like to
die

and
we all
agreed on the
same
thing;

we'd all
like to die
fucking

(although
none of us
had
done any
fucking)

and now
that
we are hardly
kids
any longer

we think more
about
how
not to
die

and
although
we're
ready

most of
us
would
prefer to
do it
alone

under the
sheets

now
that

most of
us

have fucked
our lives
away.
From You Get So Alone at Times That it Just Makes Sense
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Death, Life
as long as there are
human beings about
there is never going to be
any peace
for any individual
upon this earth (or
anywhere else
they might
escape to).

all you can do
is maybe grab
ten lucky minutes
here
or maybe an hour
there.

something
is working toward you
right now, and
I mean you
and nobody but
you.
From You Get So Alone at Times That it Just Makes Sense
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Death
The nights you fight best are
when all the weapons are pointed at you,
when all the voices hurl their insults
while the dream is being strangled.

The nights you fight best are
when reason gets kicked in the gut,
when the chariots of gloom encircle you.

The nights you fight best are
when the laughter of fools fills the air,
when the kiss of death is mistaken for love.

The nights you fight best are
when the game is fixed,
when the crowd screams for your blood.

The nights you fight best are
on a night like this
as you chase a thousand dark rats from your brain,
as you rise up against the impossible,
as you become a brother to the tender sister of joy

and move on

regardless.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Inspirational
there is a place in the heart that
will never be filled

a space

and even during the
best moments
and
the greatest times
times

we will know it

we will know it
more than
ever

there is a place in the heart that
will never be filled
and

we will wait
and
wait

in that space.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Death, Inspirational
girls
please give your
bodies and your
lives
to
the young men
who
deserve them

besides
there is
no way
I would welcome
the
intolerable
dull
senseless hell
you would bring
me

and
I wish you
luck
in bed
and
out

but not
in
mine

thank
you.
From You Get So Alone at Times That it Just Makes Sense
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Death, Life
I see a bright
portion
under the overhead light

that shades into
darkness
and then into darker
darkness
and I can't see beyond that.
From You Get So Alone at Times That it Just Makes Sense
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Death
It was like the beginning of life and laughter. It was the real meaning of the sun
From Factotum
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Inspirational
Nothing was ever in tune. People just blindly grabbed at whatever there was: communism, health foods, zen, surfing, ballet, hypnotism, group encounters, orgies, biking, herbs, Catholicism, weight-lifting, travel, withdrawal, vegetarianism, India, painting, writing, sculpting, composing, conducting, backpacking, yoga, copulating, gambling, drinking, hanging around, frozen yogurt, Beethoven, Back, Buddha, Christ, TM, H, carrot juice, suicide, handmade suits, jet travel, New York City, and then it all evaporated and fell apart. People had to find things to do while waiting to die. I guess it was nice to have a choice.
From Women
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Philosophical
You could sit in there all day drinking coffee and they never asked you to leave no matter how bad you looked. They just asked the bums not to bring their wine and drink it there. Places like that gave you hope when there wasn´t much hope.
From Ham on Rye
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Hope
Life's as kind as you let it be.
From Hot Water Music
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Life
having nothing to struggle
against
they have nothing to struggle
for.
From You Get So Alone at Times That it Just Makes Sense
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Death, Life
the worst thing," he told me,
"is bitterness, people end up so
bitter.
From You Get So Alone at Times That it Just Makes Sense
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Death, Life
be it peace or happiness
let it enfold you
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Inspirational
(the whole world is at the
throat of the world,
everybody feels angry,
short-changed, cheated,
everybody is despondent,
disillusioned.)

I welcomed shots of
peace, tattered shards of
happiness.
From Betting on the Muse: Poems & Stories
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Happiness
regret is mostly caused by not having
done anything.
From You Get So Alone at Times That it Just Makes Sense
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Death, Life
I killed four flies while waiting. Damn, death was everywhere. Man, bird, beast, reptile, rodent, insect, fish didn't have a chance. The fix was in. I didn't know what to do about it. I got depressed. You know, I see a boy at the supermarket, he's packing my groceries, then I see him sticking himself into his own grave along with the toilet paper, the beer and the chicken breasts.
From Pulp: Charles Bukowski's Final Hardboiled Noir Comedy – Lady Death, Aliens, and the Absurd
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Death
Yes Yes

when God created love he didn't help most
when God created dogs He didn't help dogs
when God created plants that was average
when God created hate we had a standard utility
when God created me He created me
when God created the monkey He was asleep
when He created the giraffe He was drunk
when He created narcotics He was high
and when He created suicide He was low

when He created you lying in bed
He knew what He was doing
He was drunk and He was high
and He created the mountains and the sea and fire at the same time

He made some mistakes
but when He created you lying in bed
He came all over His Blessed Universe.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Funny
It wasn’t my day. My week. My month. My year. My life. God damn it.
From Pulp: Charles Bukowski's Final Hardboiled Noir Comedy – Lady Death, Aliens, and the Absurd
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Life
After dinner or lunch or whatever it was -- with my crazy 12-hour night I was no longer sure what was what -- I said, "Look, baby, I'm sorry, but don't you realize that this job is driving me crazy? Look, let's give it up. Let's just lay around and make love and take walks and talk a little. Let's go to the zoo. Let's look at animals. Let's drive down and look at the ocean. It's only 45 minutes. Let's play games in the arcades. Let's go to the races, the Art Museum, the boxing matches. Let's have friends. Let's laugh. This kind of life like everybody else's kind of life: it's killing us.
From Post Office
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Life
darkness falls upon Humanity
and faces become terrible
things
that wanted more than there
was.

all our days are marked with
unexpected
affronts - some
disastrous, others
less so
but the process is
wearing and
continuous.
attrition rules.
most give
way
leaving
empty spaces
where people should
be.

and now
as we ready to self-destruct
there is very little left to
kill

which makes the tragedy
less and more
much much
more.
From You Get So Alone at Times That it Just Makes Sense
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Death
We don’t even ask happiness, just a little less pain.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Happiness
and our few good times will be rare because we have the critical sense
and are not easy to fool with laughter
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Happiness
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.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Life
I carry death in my left pocket. Sometimes I take it out and talk to it: "Hello, baby, how you doing? When you coming for me? I'll be ready.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Death
when we were kids
laying around the lawn
on our
bellies

we often talked
about
how
we'd like to
die

and
we all
agreed on the
same
thing;

we'd all
like to die
fucking

(although
none of us
had
done any
fucking)

and now
that
we are hardly
kids
any longer

we think more
about
how
not to
die

and
although
we're
ready

most of
us
would
prefer to
do it
alone

under the
sheets

now
that

most of
us

have fucked
our lives
away.
From You Get So Alone at Times That it Just Makes Sense
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Death, Life
as long as there are
human beings about
there is never going to be
any peace
for any individual
upon this earth (or
anywhere else
they might
escape to).

all you can do
is maybe grab
ten lucky minutes
here
or maybe an hour
there.

something
is working toward you
right now, and
I mean you
and nobody but
you.
From You Get So Alone at Times That it Just Makes Sense
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Death
The nights you fight best are
when all the weapons are pointed at you,
when all the voices hurl their insults
while the dream is being strangled.

The nights you fight best are
when reason gets kicked in the gut,
when the chariots of gloom encircle you.

The nights you fight best are
when the laughter of fools fills the air,
when the kiss of death is mistaken for love.

The nights you fight best are
when the game is fixed,
when the crowd screams for your blood.

The nights you fight best are
on a night like this
as you chase a thousand dark rats from your brain,
as you rise up against the impossible,
as you become a brother to the tender sister of joy

and move on

regardless.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Inspirational
there is a place in the heart that
will never be filled

a space

and even during the
best moments
and
the greatest times
times

we will know it

we will know it
more than
ever

there is a place in the heart that
will never be filled
and

we will wait
and
wait

in that space.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Death, Inspirational
girls
please give your
bodies and your
lives
to
the young men
who
deserve them

besides
there is
no way
I would welcome
the
intolerable
dull
senseless hell
you would bring
me

and
I wish you
luck
in bed
and
out

but not
in
mine

thank
you.
From You Get So Alone at Times That it Just Makes Sense
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Death, Life
I see a bright
portion
under the overhead light

that shades into
darkness
and then into darker
darkness
and I can't see beyond that.
From You Get So Alone at Times That it Just Makes Sense
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Death
It was like the beginning of life and laughter. It was the real meaning of the sun
From Factotum
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Inspirational
Nothing was ever in tune. People just blindly grabbed at whatever there was: communism, health foods, zen, surfing, ballet, hypnotism, group encounters, orgies, biking, herbs, Catholicism, weight-lifting, travel, withdrawal, vegetarianism, India, painting, writing, sculpting, composing, conducting, backpacking, yoga, copulating, gambling, drinking, hanging around, frozen yogurt, Beethoven, Back, Buddha, Christ, TM, H, carrot juice, suicide, handmade suits, jet travel, New York City, and then it all evaporated and fell apart. People had to find things to do while waiting to die. I guess it was nice to have a choice.
From Women
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Philosophical
You could sit in there all day drinking coffee and they never asked you to leave no matter how bad you looked. They just asked the bums not to bring their wine and drink it there. Places like that gave you hope when there wasn´t much hope.
From Ham on Rye
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Hope
Life's as kind as you let it be.
From Hot Water Music
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Life
having nothing to struggle
against
they have nothing to struggle
for.
From You Get So Alone at Times That it Just Makes Sense
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Death, Life
the worst thing," he told me,
"is bitterness, people end up so
bitter.
From You Get So Alone at Times That it Just Makes Sense
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Death, Life
be it peace or happiness
let it enfold you
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Inspirational
(the whole world is at the
throat of the world,
everybody feels angry,
short-changed, cheated,
everybody is despondent,
disillusioned.)

I welcomed shots of
peace, tattered shards of
happiness.
From Betting on the Muse: Poems & Stories
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Happiness
regret is mostly caused by not having
done anything.
From You Get So Alone at Times That it Just Makes Sense
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Death, Life
I killed four flies while waiting. Damn, death was everywhere. Man, bird, beast, reptile, rodent, insect, fish didn't have a chance. The fix was in. I didn't know what to do about it. I got depressed. You know, I see a boy at the supermarket, he's packing my groceries, then I see him sticking himself into his own grave along with the toilet paper, the beer and the chicken breasts.
From Pulp: Charles Bukowski's Final Hardboiled Noir Comedy – Lady Death, Aliens, and the Absurd
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Death
Yes Yes

when God created love he didn't help most
when God created dogs He didn't help dogs
when God created plants that was average
when God created hate we had a standard utility
when God created me He created me
when God created the monkey He was asleep
when He created the giraffe He was drunk
when He created narcotics He was high
and when He created suicide He was low

when He created you lying in bed
He knew what He was doing
He was drunk and He was high
and He created the mountains and the sea and fire at the same time

He made some mistakes
but when He created you lying in bed
He came all over His Blessed Universe.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Funny
It wasn’t my day. My week. My month. My year. My life. God damn it.
From Pulp: Charles Bukowski's Final Hardboiled Noir Comedy – Lady Death, Aliens, and the Absurd
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Life
After dinner or lunch or whatever it was -- with my crazy 12-hour night I was no longer sure what was what -- I said, "Look, baby, I'm sorry, but don't you realize that this job is driving me crazy? Look, let's give it up. Let's just lay around and make love and take walks and talk a little. Let's go to the zoo. Let's look at animals. Let's drive down and look at the ocean. It's only 45 minutes. Let's play games in the arcades. Let's go to the races, the Art Museum, the boxing matches. Let's have friends. Let's laugh. This kind of life like everybody else's kind of life: it's killing us.
From Post Office
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Life
darkness falls upon Humanity
and faces become terrible
things
that wanted more than there
was.

all our days are marked with
unexpected
affronts - some
disastrous, others
less so
but the process is
wearing and
continuous.
attrition rules.
most give
way
leaving
empty spaces
where people should
be.

and now
as we ready to self-destruct
there is very little left to
kill

which makes the tragedy
less and more
much much
more.
From You Get So Alone at Times That it Just Makes Sense
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Death
We don’t even ask happiness, just a little less pain.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Happiness
and our few good times will be rare because we have the critical sense
and are not easy to fool with laughter
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Happiness
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.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Life
I carry death in my left pocket. Sometimes I take it out and talk to it: "Hello, baby, how you doing? When you coming for me? I'll be ready.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Death
when we were kids
laying around the lawn
on our
bellies

we often talked
about
how
we'd like to
die

and
we all
agreed on the
same
thing;

we'd all
like to die
fucking

(although
none of us
had
done any
fucking)

and now
that
we are hardly
kids
any longer

we think more
about
how
not to
die

and
although
we're
ready

most of
us
would
prefer to
do it
alone

under the
sheets

now
that

most of
us

have fucked
our lives
away.
From You Get So Alone at Times That it Just Makes Sense
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Death, Life
as long as there are
human beings about
there is never going to be
any peace
for any individual
upon this earth (or
anywhere else
they might
escape to).

all you can do
is maybe grab
ten lucky minutes
here
or maybe an hour
there.

something
is working toward you
right now, and
I mean you
and nobody but
you.
From You Get So Alone at Times That it Just Makes Sense
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Death
The nights you fight best are
when all the weapons are pointed at you,
when all the voices hurl their insults
while the dream is being strangled.

The nights you fight best are
when reason gets kicked in the gut,
when the chariots of gloom encircle you.

The nights you fight best are
when the laughter of fools fills the air,
when the kiss of death is mistaken for love.

The nights you fight best are
when the game is fixed,
when the crowd screams for your blood.

The nights you fight best are
on a night like this
as you chase a thousand dark rats from your brain,
as you rise up against the impossible,
as you become a brother to the tender sister of joy

and move on

regardless.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Inspirational
there is a place in the heart that
will never be filled

a space

and even during the
best moments
and
the greatest times
times

we will know it

we will know it
more than
ever

there is a place in the heart that
will never be filled
and

we will wait
and
wait

in that space.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Death, Inspirational
girls
please give your
bodies and your
lives
to
the young men
who
deserve them

besides
there is
no way
I would welcome
the
intolerable
dull
senseless hell
you would bring
me

and
I wish you
luck
in bed
and
out

but not
in
mine

thank
you.
From You Get So Alone at Times That it Just Makes Sense
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Death, Life
I see a bright
portion
under the overhead light

that shades into
darkness
and then into darker
darkness
and I can't see beyond that.
From You Get So Alone at Times That it Just Makes Sense
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Death
It was like the beginning of life and laughter. It was the real meaning of the sun
From Factotum
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Inspirational
Nothing was ever in tune. People just blindly grabbed at whatever there was: communism, health foods, zen, surfing, ballet, hypnotism, group encounters, orgies, biking, herbs, Catholicism, weight-lifting, travel, withdrawal, vegetarianism, India, painting, writing, sculpting, composing, conducting, backpacking, yoga, copulating, gambling, drinking, hanging around, frozen yogurt, Beethoven, Back, Buddha, Christ, TM, H, carrot juice, suicide, handmade suits, jet travel, New York City, and then it all evaporated and fell apart. People had to find things to do while waiting to die. I guess it was nice to have a choice.
From Women
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Philosophical
You could sit in there all day drinking coffee and they never asked you to leave no matter how bad you looked. They just asked the bums not to bring their wine and drink it there. Places like that gave you hope when there wasn´t much hope.
From Ham on Rye
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Hope
Life's as kind as you let it be.
From Hot Water Music
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Life
having nothing to struggle
against
they have nothing to struggle
for.
From You Get So Alone at Times That it Just Makes Sense
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Death, Life
the worst thing," he told me,
"is bitterness, people end up so
bitter.
From You Get So Alone at Times That it Just Makes Sense
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Death, Life
be it peace or happiness
let it enfold you
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Inspirational
(the whole world is at the
throat of the world,
everybody feels angry,
short-changed, cheated,
everybody is despondent,
disillusioned.)

I welcomed shots of
peace, tattered shards of
happiness.
From Betting on the Muse: Poems & Stories
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Happiness
regret is mostly caused by not having
done anything.
From You Get So Alone at Times That it Just Makes Sense
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Death, Life
I killed four flies while waiting. Damn, death was everywhere. Man, bird, beast, reptile, rodent, insect, fish didn't have a chance. The fix was in. I didn't know what to do about it. I got depressed. You know, I see a boy at the supermarket, he's packing my groceries, then I see him sticking himself into his own grave along with the toilet paper, the beer and the chicken breasts.
From Pulp: Charles Bukowski's Final Hardboiled Noir Comedy – Lady Death, Aliens, and the Absurd
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Death
Yes Yes

when God created love he didn't help most
when God created dogs He didn't help dogs
when God created plants that was average
when God created hate we had a standard utility
when God created me He created me
when God created the monkey He was asleep
when He created the giraffe He was drunk
when He created narcotics He was high
and when He created suicide He was low

when He created you lying in bed
He knew what He was doing
He was drunk and He was high
and He created the mountains and the sea and fire at the same time

He made some mistakes
but when He created you lying in bed
He came all over His Blessed Universe.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Funny
It wasn’t my day. My week. My month. My year. My life. God damn it.
From Pulp: Charles Bukowski's Final Hardboiled Noir Comedy – Lady Death, Aliens, and the Absurd
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Life
After dinner or lunch or whatever it was -- with my crazy 12-hour night I was no longer sure what was what -- I said, "Look, baby, I'm sorry, but don't you realize that this job is driving me crazy? Look, let's give it up. Let's just lay around and make love and take walks and talk a little. Let's go to the zoo. Let's look at animals. Let's drive down and look at the ocean. It's only 45 minutes. Let's play games in the arcades. Let's go to the races, the Art Museum, the boxing matches. Let's have friends. Let's laugh. This kind of life like everybody else's kind of life: it's killing us.
From Post Office
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Life
darkness falls upon Humanity
and faces become terrible
things
that wanted more than there
was.

all our days are marked with
unexpected
affronts - some
disastrous, others
less so
but the process is
wearing and
continuous.
attrition rules.
most give
way
leaving
empty spaces
where people should
be.

and now
as we ready to self-destruct
there is very little left to
kill

which makes the tragedy
less and more
much much
more.
From You Get So Alone at Times That it Just Makes Sense
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Death
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