Quotes from Hollywood

Charles Bukowski ·  319 pages

Rating: (15.8K votes)


“Are you becoming what you've always hated?”
― Charles Bukowski, quote from Hollywood


“I pretend to understand because I don't want anybody to be hurt”
― Charles Bukowski, quote from Hollywood


“Bad taste makes more millionaires than good taste.”
― Charles Bukowski, quote from Hollywood


“I didn't like parties.I didn't know how to dance and people frightened me, especially people at parties. They attempted to be sexy and gay and witty and although they hoped they were good at it, they weren 't. They were bad at it. Their trying so hard only made it worse.”
― Charles Bukowski, quote from Hollywood


“Why do you insist upon destroying yourself?”
― Charles Bukowski, quote from Hollywood



“I lapsed into my pathetic cut-off period. Often with humans, both good and bad, my senses simply shut off, they get tired, I give up. I am polite. I nod. I pretend to understand because I don’t want anybody to be hurt. That is the one weakness that has lead me into the most trouble. Trying to be kind to others I often get my soul shredded into a kind of spiritual pasta.
No matter. My brain shuts off. I listen. I respond. And they are too dumb to know that I am not there.”
― Charles Bukowski, quote from Hollywood


“Some nights I knew that if I slept I would die.”
― Charles Bukowski, quote from Hollywood


“And I said to myself that he was the first thing that I had ever missed in my life.”
― Charles Bukowski, quote from Hollywood


“YOU HAVE WOUNDED MY HEART FOREVER!”
― Charles Bukowski, quote from Hollywood


“People just weren't interesting. Maybe they weren't supposed to be. But animals, birds, even insects were. I couldn't understand it.”
― Charles Bukowski, quote from Hollywood



“Writing was never work for me. It had been the same for as long as I could remember: turn on the radio to a classical music station, light a cigarette or a cigar, open the bottle. The typer did the rest. All I had to do was be there. The whole process allowed me to continue when life itself offered very little, when life itself was a horror show. There was always the typer to soothe me, to talk to me, to entertain me, to save my ass. Basically that's why I wrote: to save my ass, to save my ass from the madhouse, from the streets, from myself.”
― Charles Bukowski, quote from Hollywood


“The world had somehow gone too far, and spontaneous kindness could never be so easy.”
― Charles Bukowski, quote from Hollywood


“Money is like sex,' I said. 'It seems much more important when you don't have any...'

'You talk like a writer,' said Francois.”
― Charles Bukowski, quote from Hollywood


“How are his poems?"
"He's not as good as he thinks he is, but then most of us feel that way.”
― Charles Bukowski, quote from Hollywood


“المال مثل الجنس، يبدو مهمًا جدًا عندما لا تملك شيئًا منه”
― Charles Bukowski, quote from Hollywood



“What will you do?"
"Oh, hell, I'll write a novel about writing the screenplay and making the movie."
"What are you going to call it?"
"Hollywood."
"Hollywood?"
"Yes...”
― Charles Bukowski, quote from Hollywood


“I lost almost all the blood in my body in 1957”
― Charles Bukowski, quote from Hollywood


“All’s fair in hate and Hollywood.”
― Charles Bukowski, quote from Hollywood


“It was a sickness: this great interest in a medium that relentlessly and consistently failed, time after time after time, to produce anything at all. People became so used to seeing shit on film that they no longer realized it was shit.”
― Charles Bukowski, quote from Hollywood


“A mí cada vez que alguien me hablaba me entraban ganas de tirarme por la ventana o de escapar en el ascensor. La gente, simplemente, no me resultaba interesante. Quizá no tenía por qué serlo. Pero los animales, los pájaros, incluso los insectos lo eran. No podía entenderlo.”
― Charles Bukowski, quote from Hollywood



“That is the one weakness that has lead me into the most trouble. Trying to be kind to others I often get my soul shredded into a kind of spiritual pasta.”
― Charles Bukowski, quote from Hollywood


“Zastanawiałem się czasem, czy moja twórczość nie jest aby adresowana do idiotów? Nie żebym na to mógł cokolwiek poradzić...”
― Charles Bukowski, quote from Hollywood


“We went up the Harbor freeway north and then we cut onto the San Diego freeway north. I hated the San Diego freeway. It always jammed. Then I noticed a slight rain beginning to fall.

"That's it," I said, "it's beginning to rain." All the cars were going to stop. California drivers didn't know how to drive in the rain.”
― Charles Bukowski, quote from Hollywood


“We were in Jon's car. "I have the first part I need. The pain-killer. You see I had to go to a doctor for an ingrown toenail. He operated. Then he gave me a pain-killer afterwards. It worked great..."
"Where are we going?"
"You'll see. Anyhow, I had to go back to get the toe checked. I said to the doctor, 'That pain-killer was great, it lasted ten hours. Tell me about it.' He told me about it. Then I asked him, 'Can I see it?' And he took me to this medicine cabinet and pointed it out. 'Very interesting,' I said. We talked a bit more, then I left. But I had a bag with me, a small travelling bag. I left it by the medicine cabinet. Then I left the office, came back. 'Oh,' I told the receptionist, 'I left my bag.' I went to get the bag and there was nobody around. I opened the cabinet and took the pain-killer."
"You can't do this," I told Jon.
"I must, " he answered.”
― Charles Bukowski, quote from Hollywood


“almost anything upsets or insults a movie audience, while people who read novels and short stories love to be upset and insulted.”
― Charles Bukowski, quote from Hollywood



“TOMORROW ALWAYS LOOKS THE SAME! THAT’S THE PROBLEM!”
― Charles Bukowski, quote from Hollywood


“Youth, you son of a bitch, where did you go?”
― Charles Bukowski, quote from Hollywood


“Lawyers, doctors, plumbers, they made all the money. Writers? Writers starved. Writers suicided. Writers went mad.”
― Charles Bukowski, quote from Hollywood


“He was one of those who looked like a genius. I looked like a dishwasher so these types always pissed me just a bit.”
― Charles Bukowski, quote from Hollywood


“sometimes there is a dark cloud that never passes. It stays forever!” “Well, that’s death.”
― Charles Bukowski, quote from Hollywood



About the author

Charles Bukowski
Born place: in Andernach, Germany
Born date August 16, 1920
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