“I wanted the whole world or nothing.”
― Charles Bukowski, quote from Post Office
“In the morning it was morning and I was still alive.”
― Charles Bukowski, quote from Post Office
“Can you remember who you were, before the world told you who you should be?”
― Charles Bukowski, quote from Post Office
“I wasn't much of a petty thief. I wanted the whole world or nothing.”
― Charles Bukowski, quote from Post Office
“But now and then, a woman walks up, full blossom, a woman just bursting out of her dress…a sex creature, a curse, the end of it all.”
― Charles Bukowski, quote from Post Office
“After dinner or lunch or whatever it was -- with my crazy 12-hour night I was no longer sure what was what -- I said, "Look, baby, I'm sorry, but don't you realize that this job is driving me crazy? Look, let's give it up. Let's just lay around and make love and take walks and talk a little. Let's go to the zoo. Let's look at animals. Let's drive down and look at the ocean. It's only 45 minutes. Let's play games in the arcades. Let's go to the races, the Art Museum, the boxing matches. Let's have friends. Let's laugh. This kind of life like everybody else's kind of life: it's killing us.”
― Charles Bukowski, quote from Post Office
“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, quote from Post Office
“Food is good for the nerves and the spirit. Courage comes from the belly – all else is desperation.”
― Charles Bukowski, quote from Post Office
“Any damn fool can beg up some kind of job; it takes a wise man to make it without working.”
― Charles Bukowski, quote from Post Office
“It was sad, it was sad, it was sad. When Betty came back we didn't sing or laugh, or even argue. We sat drinking in the dark, smoking cigarettes, and when we went to sleep, I didn't put my feet on her body or she on mine like we used to. We slept without touching.
We had both been robbed.”
― Charles Bukowski, quote from Post Office
“The blankets had fallen off and I stared down at her white back, the shoulder blades sticking out as if they wanted to grow into wings, poke through that skin. Little blades. She was helpless.”
― Charles Bukowski, quote from Post Office
“Fay had a spot of blood on the left side of her mouth and I took a wet cloth and wiped it off. Women were meant to suffer; no wonder they asked for constant declarations of love.”
― Charles Bukowski, quote from Post Office
“WHAT'S WRONG WITH ASSHOLES, BABY? YOU'VE GOT AN ASSHOLE, I'VE GOT AN ASSHOLE! YOU GO TO THE STORE AND BUY A PORTERHOUSE STEAK, THAT HAD AN ASSHOLE! ASSHOLES COVER THE EARTH! IN A WAY TREES HAVE ASSHOLES BUT YOU CAN'T FIND THEM, THEY JUST DROP THEIR LEAVES. YOUR ASSHOLE, MY ASSHOLE, THE WORLD IS FULL OF BILLIONS OF ASSHOLES. THE PRESIDENT HAS AN ASSHOLE, THE CARWASH BOY HAS AN ASSHOLE, THE JUDGE AND THE MURDERER HAVE ASSHOLES . . . EVEN THE PURPLE STICKINPIN HAS AN ASSHOLE!”
― Charles Bukowski, quote from Post Office
“…He was always high on drugs. I was not a drug man, but in case I wanted to hide from myself for a few days, I knew I could get anything I wanted from him.”
― Charles Bukowski, quote from Post Office
“Let' em learn or let' em die”
― Charles Bukowski, quote from Post Office
“Look, you're small-town. I've had over 50 jobs, maybe a hundred. I've never stayed anywhere long. What I am trying to say is, there is a certain game played in offices all over America. The people are bored, they don't know what to do, so they play the office-romance game. Most of the time it means nothing but the passing of time. Sometimes they do manage to work off a screw or two on the side. But even then, it is just an offhand pasttime, like bowling or t.v. or a New Year's Eve party. You've got to understand that it doesn't mean anything and then you won't get hurt. Do you understand what I mean?"
I think that Mr. Partisan is sincere."
You're going to get stuck with that pin, babe, don't forget what I told you. Watch those slicks. They are as phony as a lead dime.”
― Charles Bukowski, quote from Post Office
“God or somebody keeps creating women and tossing them out on the streets, and this one’s ass is too big and that one’s tits are too small, and this one is mad and that one is crazy and that one is a religionist and that one reads tea leaves and this one can’t control her farts, and that one has this big nose, and that one has boney legs … But now and then, a woman walks up, full blossom, a woman just bursting out of her dress … a sex creature, a curse, the end of it all.”
― Charles Bukowski, quote from Post Office
“The ocean," I said, "look at it out there, battering, crawling up and down. And underneath all that, the fish, the poor fish fighting each other, eating each other. We're like those fish, only we're up here. One bad move and you're finished. It's nice to be a champion. It's nice to know your moves.”
― Charles Bukowski, quote from Post Office
“Courage comes from the belly - all else is desperation.”
― Charles Bukowski, quote from Post Office
“I met Betty on the street.
"I saw you with that bitch a while back. She's not your kind of woman."
"None of them are.”
― Charles Bukowski, quote from Post Office
“I went to the bathroom and threw some water on my face, combed my hair. If I could only comb that face, I thought, but I can't.”
― Charles Bukowski, quote from Post Office
“يواصل الله خلق المرأة والقذف بها الى الشوارع , تلك بمؤخرة ضخمة جداً واخرى بنهدين صغيرين جداً , والمهووسة والمجنونة , والمتدينة , ومن تقرأ الفنجان , ومن لا تتحكم في ضراطها , ومن لها انف كبير , ومن لها سيقان نحيلة …
لكن بين الحين والاخر , تطل امرأة بكامل نورها , امرأة تتفتح من ثيابها ..مخلوق جذّاب , هي اللعنة ! ونهاية العالم .
نظرتُ الى اعلى ورأيتها , في الطرف المقابل للحانة . كانت مخمورة ورفض النادل ان يقدم لها مشروباً اخر, بدأت تشتُم وقاموا باستدعاء أحد رجال الشرطة , فأمسك بها الشرطي من ذراعها , وقادها الى الخارج , فيما كانوا هم يلغطون .
أنهيت شرابي وخرجتُ وراءهم .
((ايها الشرطيّ ! ايها الشرطيّ ! ))
توقّف ونظر اليّ .
((هل فعلت زوجتي سوءًا؟)) سالته .
((نعتقد انها مخمورة , يا سيدي . كنت سأرافقها الى البوابة)) .
((بوابة الانطلاق؟))
ضحك . ((لا يا سيدي . بوابة الخروج)).
((سأعتني بالامر , يا حضرة الشرطي)) .
((حسناً يا سيدي , ولكن اهتم بأن لا تشرب بعد الان )) .
لم ارّد . أمسكتها من ذراعها وعدت بها الى الداخل .
قالت : (( الحمد لله ,لقد انقذت حياتي )) .
اصطدم صدرها بي .
((لا بأس اسمي هانك))
قالت : ((انا ماري لو)) .
قلت : ((ماري لو , أنا احبك)) . ص 177”
― Charles Bukowski, quote from Post Office
“She seemed a bit crazy but I kept looking at her body and I didn't care.”
― Charles Bukowski, quote from Post Office
“Women were meant to suffer; no wonder they asked for constant declarations of love.”
― Charles Bukowski, quote from Post Office
“I went home each night dizzy and sick. He was murdering me with the sound of his voice.”
― Charles Bukowski, quote from Post Office
“I broke that town in half like a wooden match.”
― Charles Bukowski, quote from Post Office
“The first place smelled like work, so I took the second.”
― Charles Bukowski, quote from Post Office
“God damn the geraniums! ...It was like trying to screw during an aerial attack.”
― Charles Bukowski, quote from Post Office
“MAILMAN CAUGHT DRINKING THE BLOOD OF GOD AND TAKING A SHOWER, NAKED, IN ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH.”
― Charles Bukowski, quote from Post Office
Charles Bukowski
Born place: in Andernach, Germany
Born date August 16, 1920
See more on GoodReads
“If you dont like me, Walk away , Matter of fact Run Away”
― Virginia Euwer Wolff, quote from Make Lemonade
“One thing is certain, that when you die and are resurrected you belong to the earth and whatever is of the earth is yours inalienably. You become an anomaly of nature, a being without shadow; you will never die again but only pass away like the phenomena about you.”
― Henry Miller, quote from Tropic of Capricorn
“All my life I have been the sort of person in whom people confide. And all my life I have been flattered by this role - grateful for the frisson of importance that comes with receiving important information. In recent years, however, I have noticed that my gratification is becoming diluted by a certain weary indignation. They tell me because they regard me as safe. All of them, they make their disclosures to me in the same spirit that they might tell a castrato or a priest - with a sense that I am so outside the loop, so remote from the doings of the great world, as to be defused of any possible threat. The number of secrets I receive is in inverse proportion to the number of secrets anyone expects me to have of my own. And this is the real source of my dismay. Being told secrets is not - never has been - a sign that I belong or that I matter. It is quite the opposite: confirmation of my irrelevance.”
― Zoë Heller, quote from What Was She Thinking? [Notes on a Scandal]
“Esta vez, Watson, califíqueme en su relato como de burro completo.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, quote from His Last Bow
“I remember, now, how to cry.”
― Alex Flinn, quote from Breathing Underwater
The Year of Living B...
Airborn
Moab Is My Washpot
Captured
The Black Cauldron
Little ChildrenBookQuoters 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.
