Heinrich Karl Bukowski, better known as Henry Charles Bukowski, was a German-born American novelist, short story writer and poet, who is included among the influential poets to have enriched American literature during their lifetime. Bukowski’s works were primarily focused on the social and economic situation in Los Angeles, the city in which he lived. Bukowski’s poems, short stories and novels dealt with the lives of downtrodden and poorer sections of the American population, which made TIME magazine describe him as the ‘laureate of American lowlife’. He produced a staggering amount of work throughout his career with the number of poems running into thousands. In addition to that he wrote six novels as well as plenty of short stories. Some of his well-known poetry collections include ‘The Days Run Away Like Wild Horses Over the Hills’, ‘Scarlet’ and ‘Maybe Tomorrow’ among others. On the other hand, ‘Post Office’, ‘Hollywood’ and ‘Ham on Rye’ are some of his well known novels. Bukowski also wrote for an underground publication named Open City. He was a highly intelligent man, who had a unique take on the world. We bring to you some of the best known quotes from Charles Bukowski’s life, times and work. Some of these quotes are excerpted from Charles Bukowski's poems, novels and short stories.
Sometimes you climb out of bed in the morning and you think, I'm not going to make it, but you laugh inside — remembering all the times you've felt that way.
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.
The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts, while the stupid ones are full of confidence.
Charles Bukowski
An intellectual says a simple thing in a hard way. An artist says a hard thing in a simple way.
Charles Bukowski
There are worse things
than being alone
but it often takes
decades to realize this
and most often when you do
it's too late
and there's nothing worse
than too late
