Inspirational Quotes
Words to motivate, inspire, and guide you.
Charles Bukowski Quotes
HumanityLoveMortalityTriviality We're all going to die, all of us; what a circus! That alone should make us love each other, but it doesn't. We are terrorized and flattened by trivialities. We are eaten up by nothing.
Double StandardsPrejudiceRepresentationStereotypes If I write badly about blacks, homosexuals and women, it is because of these who I met were that. There are many 'bads' - bad dogs, bad censorship; there are even 'bad' white males. Only, when you write about 'bad' white males, they don't complain about it. And need I say that there are 'good' blacks, 'good' homosexuals and 'good' women?
Cultural ImpactInfluenceOriginalityTimelessnessVisionary Ideas Generally, a writer of force is anywhere from 20 years to 200 years ahead of his generation.
Inner StruggleResilienceSelf-awareness If you're losing your soul and you know it, then you've still got a soul left to lose.
IndividualityLifeResilienceStrength A cat is only itself, representative of the strong forces of life that won't let go.
ArtCreativityExpressionObservationWriting In my work, as a writer, I only photograph, in words, what I see.
ClarityCommunicationInsightSimplicityTalent Genius might be the ability to say a profound thing in a simple way.
AntipathyCritique of Physical Appearance and BehaviorDiscontent I do not like the human race. I don't like their heads, I don't like their faces, I don't like their feet, I don't like their conversations, I don't like their hairdos, I don't like their automobiles.
AuthenticityClich SCreativityOriginality When I worked on a magazine, I learned that there are many, many writers writing that can't write at all; and they keep on writing all the cliches and bromides and 1890 plots, and poems about Spring and poems about Love, and poems they think are modern because they are done in slang or staccato style, or written with all the 'i's' small.
FreedomInspirationWell-being The free soul is rare, but you know it when you see it - basically because you feel good, very good, when you are near or with them.
AccomplishmentFulfillmentLifePurposeSelf Worth To not to have entirely wasted one's life seems to be a worthy accomplishment, if only for myself.
AuthorityCivic ResponsibilityDemocracyDictatorshipPower Dynamics The difference between a democracy and a dictatorship is that in a democracy you vote first and take orders later; in a dictatorship you don't have to waste your time voting.
Creativity I only type every third night. I have no plan. My mind is a blank. I sit down. The typewriter gives me things I don't even know I'm working on. It's a free lunch. A free dinner. I don't know how long it is going to continue, but so far there is nothing easier than writing.
AcceptanceClarityDistanceSimplicityVulnerability It's possible to love a human being if you don't know them too well.
AuthenticityIndividualityNonconformityStruggle I don't like the clean-shaven boy with the necktie and the good job. I like desperate men, men with broken teeth and broken minds and broken ways. They interest me. They are full of surprises and explosions.
FocusProductivitySelf-DisciplineWriting When I write, when I'm going hot, I don't want to write more than four hours in a row. After that, you're pushing it.
EnduranceInner ConflictTimelessnessWriting Writers have to put up with this editor thing; it is ageless and eternal and wrong.
CreativityFaithIdentityIntuitionResilience I have no definite talent or trade, and how I stay alive is largely a matter of magic.
ChallengeConsequenceInevitabilityPreparednessVulnerability There will always be something to ruin our lives, it all depends on what or which finds us first. We are always ripe and ready to be taken.
HardshipNostalgiaSimple Pleasures I used to live on one candy bar a day - it cost a nickel. I always remember the candy bar was called Payday. That was my payday. And that candy bar tasted so good, at night I would take one bite, and it was so beautiful.
AnxietyJob SecurityMindsetRealismSocial Hierarchy Early on, when I was quite young and going from job to job, I was foolish enough to sometimes speak to my fellow workers: 'Hey, the boss can come in here at any moment and lay all of us off, just like that, don't you realize that?' They would just look at me. I was posing something that they didn't want to enter their minds.
KnowledgeLearningReading Between the ages of fifteen and twenty-four, I must have read a whole library.
AcceptancePerseveranceReflectionResilienceSelf-awareness I don't write so much now. I'm getting on 33, pot belly and creeping dementia.
FreedomIndividualityNon-conformity I can relax with bums because I am a bum. I don't like laws, morals, religions, rules. I don't like to be shaped by society.