Charles Bukowski

I was laying in bed one night and I thought ‘I’ll just quit – to hell with it.’ And another little voice inside me said ‘Don’t quit – save that tiny little ember of spark.’ And never give them that spark because as long as you have that spark, you can start the greatest fire again.

Charles Bukowski

I was so thin I could slice bread with my shoulderblades, only I seldom had bread.

Charles Bukowski

I will remember the kisses, our lips raw with love, and how you gave me everything you had and how I offered you what was left of me.

Charles Bukowski

I wish to weep but sorrow is stupid. I wish to believe but belief is a graveyard.

Charles Bukowski

I write as a function. Without it I would fall ill and die. It’s as much a part of one as the liver or intestine, and just about as glamorous.

Charles Bukowski

I’m very clever at hiding poems perhaps more clever than I am at writing them.

Charles Bukowski

If I stop writing I am dead. And that’s the only way I’ll stop: dead.

Charles Bukowski

If I’m an ass, I should say so. If I don’t, somebody else will. If I say it first, that disarms them.

Charles Bukowski

If you can hit a guy once, you can hit him twice.

Charles Bukowski

In the morning it was morning and I was still alive. Maybe I’ll write a novel, I thought. And then I did.

Charles Bukowski