“That's the problem with drinking, I thought, as I poured myself a drink. If something bad happens you drink in an attempt to forget; if something good happens you drink in order to celebrate...”
Work
<p> Low-life writer and unrepentant alcoholic Henry Chinaski was born to survive. After decades of slacking off at low-paying dead-end jobs, blowing his cash on booze and women, and scrimping by in flea-bitten apartments, Chinaski sees his poetic star rising at last. Now, at fifty, he is reveling in his sudden rock-star life, running three hundred hangovers a year, and maintaining a sex life that would cripple Casanova. </p> <p> With all of Bukowski's trademark humor and gritty, dark honesty, this 1978 follow-up to <i>Post Office</i> and <i>Factotum</i> is an uncompromising account of life on the edge. </p>
Quotes
Showing 1-14 of 14
Charles Bukowski
Canonical work source
“That's the problem with drinking, I thought, as I poured myself a drink. If something bad happens you drink in an attempt to forget; if something good happens you drink in order to celebrate...”
“being alone never felt right. sometimes it felt good, but it never felt right.”
“Her violence frightened me. She always claimed that I was the jealous one, and I was often jealous, but when I saw things working against me I simply became disgusted and withdrew. Lydia was...”
“The place trembled with sound. I didn't need to do anything. They would do it all. But you had to be careful. Drunk as they were they could immediately detect any false gesture, any false wo...”
“Nothing was ever in tune. People just blindly grabbed at whatever there was: communism, health foods, zen, surfing, ballet, hypnotism, group encounters, orgies, biking, herbs, Catholicism, w...”
“A good writer knew when not to write. Anybody could type. Not that I was a good typist; also I couldn't spell and I didn't know grammar. But I knew when not to write. It was like fucking. Yo...”
“Goodness could be found sometimes in the middle of hell.”
“I was glad I wasn't in love, that I wasn't happy with the world. I like being at odds with everything. People in love often become edgy, dangerous. They lose their sense of perspective. They...”
“There is a problem with writers. If what a writer wrote was published and sold many, many copies, the writer thought he was great. If what a writer wrote was published and sold a medium numb...”
“Most people are much better at saying things in letters than in conversation, and some people can write artistic, inventive letters, but when they try a poem or story or novel they become pr...”
“There's no way I can stop writing, it's a form of insanity.”
“When I was young I was depressed all the time. But suicide no longer seemed a possibility in my life. At my age there was very little left to kill. It was good to be old, no matter what they...”
“I write fiction. What's fiction ?? Fiction is an improvement on life.”
“Learning to crow: If we’ve been taught to credit our success externally and debit our failures to ourselves, we’re indeed in a bind. It is important to come to an authentic assessment of our...”
0 likes