Charles Bukowski Quotes About Life

Charles Bukowski was a German-American writer of poetry and prose, whose cult image lives on posthumously. Often using graphic language or imagery in his work, Bukowski spoke with raw emotion, honesty, and lack of pretence. He wrote about his alcoholism, failed relationships, and his experience of being abused as a child. Bukowski lived a challenging life, often in squalor, yet produced some of the most profound, beautiful poetry and prose in modern history.

“If you’re going to try, go all the way. Otherwise, don’t even start. This could mean losing girlfriends, wives, relatives and maybe even your mind. It could mean not eating for three or four days. It could mean freezing on a park bench. It could mean jail. It could mean derision. It could mean mockery–isolation. Isolation is the gift. All the others are a test of your endurance, of how much you really want to do it. And, you’ll do it, despite rejection and the worst odds. And it will be better than anything else you can imagine. If you’re going to try, go all the way. There is no other feeling like that. You will be alone with the gods, and the nights will flame with fire. You will ride life straight to perfect laughter. It’s the only good fight there is.” – Charles Bukowski.

“Sometime you climb out of bed in the morning and you think, I’m not going to make it, but you laugh inside remembering all the times you’ve felt that way.”

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

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

4. “If you’re losing your soul and you know it, then you’ve still got a soul left to lose.”

5. “We’re all going to die, all of us, what a circus! That alone should make us love each other but doesn’t. We are terrorized and flattened by trivialities, we are eaten up by nothing.”