“Life's as kind as you let it be.”
― Charles Bukowski, quote from Hot Water Music
“Love is a form of prejudice. You love what you need, you love what makes you feel good, you love what is convenient. How can you say you love one person when there are ten thousand people in the world that you would love more if you ever met them? But you'll never meet them.”
― Charles Bukowski, quote from Hot Water Music
“What is your advice to young writers?”
“Drink, fuck and smoke plenty of cigarettes.”
― Charles Bukowski, quote from Hot Water Music
“Never trust a man in a jumpsuit”
― Charles Bukowski, quote from Hot Water Music
“Ann, I love you. I hope my car starts. I hope the sink isn't plugged up. I'm glad I didn't fuck a groupie. I'm glad I'm not very good at getting into bed with strange females. I'm glad I'm an idiot. I'm glad I don't know anything. I'm glad I haven't been murdered. When I look at my hands and they are still on my wrists, I think to myself, I am lucky.”
― Charles Bukowski, quote from Hot Water Music
“There was nothing glorious about the life of a drinker or the life of a writer.”
― Charles Bukowski, quote from Hot Water Music
“If you’re going to try, go all the
way.
otherwise, don’t even start.”
― Charles Bukowski, quote from Hot Water Music
“That’s how they hooked you—they gave you just enough to keep alive but they never gave you enough so you could finally escape.”
― Charles Bukowski, quote from Hot Water Music
“What is your advice to young writers?"
"Drink, fuck and smoke plenty of cigarettes."
"What is your advice to older writers?"
"If you're still alive, you don't need any advice."
"What is the impulse that makes you create a poem?"
"What makes you take a shit?”
― Charles Bukowski, quote from Hot Water Music
“But you know, only boring people get bored. They have to prod themselves continually in order to feel alive.”
― Charles Bukowski, quote from Hot Water Music
“Three a.m. drunks, all over America, were staring at the walls, having finally give it up. You didn't have to be drunk to get hurt, to be zeroed out by a woman; but you could get hurt and become a drunk. You might think for a while, especially when you were young, that luck was with you, and sometimes it was. But there were all manner of averages and laws working that you know nothing about, even as you imagined things were going well. Some night, some hot summer Thursday, night you became the drunk, you were out there alone in a cheap rented room, and no matter how many times you'd been out there before, it was no help, it was even worse because you had got to thinking you wouldn't face it again. All you could do was light another cigarette, pour another drink, check the peeling walls for lips and eyes. What men and women did to each other was beyond comprehension.”
― Charles Bukowski, quote from Hot Water Music
“Ευφυία είναι η ικανότητα να πεις κάτι βαθυστόχαστο με απλό τρόπο.”
― Charles Bukowski, quote from Hot Water Music
“What is your advice to young writers?” “Drink, fuck and smoke plenty of cigarettes.” “What is your advice to older writers?” “If you’re still alive, you don’t need any advice.” “What is the impulse that makes you create a poem?” “What makes you take a shit?” “What do you think of Reagan and unemployment?” “I don’t think of Reagan or unemployment.”
― Charles Bukowski, quote from Hot Water Music
“Το πιο δύσκολο πράγμα είναι να μαντέψεις ποια πρέπει να είναι η πρώτη σου κίνηση.”
― Charles Bukowski, quote from Hot Water Music
“You know, doctor, wisdom comes at a hell of an hour—when youth is gone, the storm is over and the girls have gone home.”
― Charles Bukowski, quote from Hot Water Music
“The miserable have no other medicine
But only hope:
I've hope to live, and am prepared to die.”
― William Shakespeare, quote from Measure for Measure
“Relax, let go, allow, and recognize that some of your desires are about how you think your world should be, rather than how it is in that moment. Become an astute observer…judge less and listen more. Take time to open your mind to the fascinating mystery and uncertainty that we all experience.”
― Wayne W. Dyer, quote from Change Your Thoughts - Change Your Life: Living the Wisdom of the Tao
“Earlier, when I made my coffee (after releasing my grateful geese), I sat at the big Northridge desk and got out the Edward Curtis portfolio for breakfast reading. When I untied the first folio there was a note—“Dalva & Ruth. Wash your hands. I love you. Grandpa.” A simple old note, brittle with age, but I was momentarily overcome with loneliness for her; at the same time, though, I knew in a deeper sense that I was totally out of the running. In the long and short of it, love is a more difficult subject than sex. Or history. I”
― Jim Harrison, quote from Dalva
“I held in my hand an invisible sword that sliced through every illusion. The sharpness of the blade gave me its icy and dazzling strength. I no longer believed in the compassion of men; I believed in the strength og the gods. I had averted my eyes from my suffering and fixed them on the stars.”
― Shan Sa, quote from Empress
“Don't ruin it by saying something. Now. Go to class.”
― Rachel Van Dyken, quote from Elite
BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.
We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.
Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.