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the way to create art is to burn and destroy ordinary concepts and to substitute them with new truths that run down from the top of the head and out of the heart

Charles Bukowski

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Charles Bukowski
Age: 73 †
Born: 1920
Born: August 16
Died: 1994
Died: March 9
Actor
Author
Autobiographer
Columnist
Diarist
Journalist
Novelist
Poet
Screenwriter
Writer
Henry Charles Bukowski
Buk
charles bukowski
Way
Concepts
Destruction
Ordinary
Head
Substitute
Create
Substitutes
Running
Burn
Art
Truths
Heart
Destroy

More quotes by Charles Bukowski

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Don't ever write a novel unless it hurts like a hot turd coming out.
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We are here to laugh at the odds and live our lives so well that Death will tremble to take us.
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I still have a little whiskey left and therefore a chance.
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I feel no grief for being called something which I am not in fact, it's enthralling, somehow, like a good back rub
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There are no good wars or bad wars. The only thing bad about a war is to lose it. All wars have been fought for a so-called good Cause on both sides. But only the victor's Cause becomes history's Noble Cause. It's not a matter of who is right or who is wrong, it's a matter of who has the best generals and the better army!
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Slavery was never abolished, it was only extended to include all the colors.
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why don't we go back out there and tell them what happened? because nothing happened except that everybody has been driven insane and stupid by life. in this society there are only two things that count: don't be caught without money and don't get caught high on any kind of high. (Night Streets of Madness)
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Those who preach god, need god Those who preach peace do not have peace Those who preach love do not have love
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it seemed to me that I had never met another person on earth as discouraging to my happiness as my father. and it appeared that I had the same effect upon him.
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I didn't have any friends at school, didn't want any. I felt better being alone. I sat on a bench and watched the others play and they looked foolish to me.
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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 pretentious.
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Basically, that's why I wrote: to save my ass, to save my ass from the madhouse, from the streets, from myself.
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Four days alone with nothing. Emerge empowered. The first human face you see will knock you back 50%.
Charles Bukowski
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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 and if nothing happens you drink to make something happen.
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Keep your money in your pocket. Or bet it on a good horse.
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But she projected vitality - you knew that she was there.
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There is nothing that teaches you more than regrouping after failure and moving on. Yet most people are stricken with fear. They fear failure so much that they fail. They are too conditioned, too used to being told what to do. It begins with the family, runs through school and goes into the business world.
Charles Bukowski
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sometimes I hate you, she said.
Charles Bukowski
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mercy, I think, doesn't the human race know anything about mercy?
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Why do we embroider everything we say with special emphasis when all we really need to do is simply say what needs to he said? Of course the fact is that there is very little that needs to be said.
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