100+ Charles Bukowski Quotes: Unfiltered Wisdom and Insights

Charles Bukowski, an enigmatic and prolific poet, has left an indelible mark on literature with his raw, brutally honest reflections on life. This collection captures the essence of his work through 120 quotes, each offering a glimpse into his unique perspective on love, life, work, and the human condition. Whether you're a long-time fan or new to his gritty world, these quotes will both challenge and inspire, inviting you to explore the depths of Bukowski's poetic genius.

Love Quotes by Bukowski

"Love is a fog that burns with the first daylight of reality."

"Love, when it comes, nobody knows, nobody can explain it."

"Find what you love and let it kill you."

"If you have the ability to love, love yourself first."

"The free soul is rare, but you know it when you see it – basically because you feel good, very good, when you are near or with them."

"Some people never go crazy. What truly horrible lives they must lead."

"You have to die a few times before you can really live."

"Your ambition is handicapped by laziness."

"The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts, while the stupid ones are full of confidence."

"To live as we dream is a deception of the soul."

"Sometimes you climb out of bed in the morning, and you think, I'm not going to make it."

"We're all going to die, all of us, what a circus!"

Life Quotes by Bukowski

"The less I needed, the better I felt."

"We are here to laugh at the odds and live our lives so well that Death will tremble to take us."

"I guess the only time most people think about injustice is when it happens to them."

"You have to die a few times before you can really live."

"The shortest distance between two points is often unbearable."

"What matters most is how well you walk through the fire."

"For those who believe in God, most of the big questions are answered. But for those of us who can’t readily accept the God formula, the big answers don’t remain stone-written."

"The difference between a democracy and a dictatorship is that in a democracy you vote first and take orders later; in a dictatorship you don’t have to waste your time voting."

"I wanted the whole world or nothing."

"Creating art is about the good, bad, and ugly aspects of the world in which we live."

"We are here to unlearn the teachings of the church, state, and our education system."

"I don’t hate people. I just feel better when they’re not around."

Work Quotes by Bukowski

"How in the hell could a man enjoy being awakened at 8:30 by an alarm clock, leap out of bed, dress, force-feed, piss, brush teeth, and fight traffic to get to a place where essentially you made lots of money for somebody else and were asked to be grateful for the opportunity to do so?"

"Boring damned people. All over the earth."

"The nine-to-five is one of the greatest atrocities sprung upon mankind."

"I discovered that my work, particularly the writing, was the only thing that really mattered to me."

"The best things in life aren’t things."

"An intellectual says a simple thing in a hard way. An artist says a hard thing in a simple way."

"While I mostly just sit around with my head in my hands wondering, wondering, I'm still better off than most humans."

"The artist is the closest thing to man that he has yet invented."

"The art of living is more like wrestling than dancing."

"Don’t try."

"Genius might be the ability to say a profound thing in a simple way."

"The trouble with a mask is it never changes."

Alcohol and Indulgence Quotes by Bukowski

"The best often die by their own hand just to get away."

"Drinking is an emotional thing. It joggles you out of the standardism of everyday life, out of everything being the same."

"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."

"We are all going to die, all of us, what a circus!"

"You begin saving the world by saving one person at a time; all else is grandiose romanticism or politics."

"A love like that was a serious illness. An illness from which you never entirely recover."

"You're afraid of the audience? The audience is just a string of nobodies."

"I didn’t have any friends at school; I was always a loner"

"Beware of those who seek constant crowds; they are nothing alone."

"The more crap you believe, the worse off you are."

"Great art is horseshit, buy tacos—The only difference is that talent makes you a lot of money."

"The difference between a democracy and a dictatorship is that in a democracy you vote first and take orders later; in a dictatorship you don’t have to waste your time voting."

Hope & Survival Quotes by Bukowski

"What is terrible is not death but the lives people live, and the later pains that follow their dreams and behavior."

"The more cats you have, the longer you live. If you have a hundred cats, you'll live ten times longer than if you have ten. Someday this will be discovered, and people will have thousands of cats. And the world will be filled with cats, and pyramids of cats, and man will finally die. But the cats will survive."

"Sometimes you climb out of bed in the morning, and you think, I'm not going to make it, but you laugh inside."

"The idea is to die young as late as possible."

"Bad taste creates many more millionaires than good taste."

"The shortest distance between two points is often unbearable."

"I never met another man I’d rather be. And even though that's a little self-centered, it's the truth."

"What matters most is how well you walk through the fire."

"Dogs and angels are not very far apart."

"I was born to hustle roses down the avenues of the dead."

"Do anything, but let it produce joy."

"Boring gods make boring people."

Human Nature Quotes by Bukowski

"Man, it’s such a crisis when life itself is presented to you as such a great gift."

"The free soul is rare, but you know it when you see it – basically because you feel good, very good, when you are near or with them."

"We're all going to die, all of us, what a circus!"

"Loneliness is a sign you're in desperate need of yourself."

"An intellectual says a simple thing in a hard way. An artist says a hard thing in a simple way."

"If you're losing your soul and you know it, then you've still got a soul left to lose."

"There will always be something lacking in the life of the person who does not gamble."

"Do you hate people?' 'I don't hate them...I just feel better when they're not around."

"Love is a form of prejudice. You love what you need, what suits you, what makes you feel good."

"I think the question is not do you love them...but do you love yourself more?"

"To not to have entirely wasted one's life seems to be a worthy accomplishment, if only for oneself."

"Find what you love and let it kill you."

Women and Relationships Quotes by Bukowski

"A woman is a full-time job. You have to choose your profession."

"If you get married, they think you're finished, and if you are without a woman they think you're incomplete."

"Sometimes there’s no way around this loneliness, sometimes life is nasty and brutish."

"Women: They sometimes make up their minds when you least expect it, or when you've already gotten over expecting."

"To gain a woman’s affecti