The Pleasures of the Damned Quotes

“invent yourself and then reinvent yourself,
don't swim in the same slough.
invent yourself and then reinvent yourself and
stay out of the clutches of mediocrity.

invent yourself and then reinvent yourself,
change your tone and shape so often that they can never categorize you.

reinvigorate yourself and
accept what is
but only on the terms that you have invented
and reinvented.

be self-taught.

and reinvent your life because you must;
it is your life and
its history
and the present
belong only to
you.”
― Charles Bukowski, The Pleasures of the Damned

“in this room
the hours of love
still make shadows.”
― Charles Bukowski, The Pleasures of the Damned

“we
sat there
smoking
cigarettes
at
5
in the morning.”
― Charles Bukowski, The Pleasures of the Damned

“peace of mind and heart
arrives
when we accept what is:
having been
born into this
strange life
we must accept
the wasted gamble of our
days
and take some satisfaction in
the pleasure of
leaving it all
behind.”
― Charles Bukowski, The Pleasures of the Damned

“There is a loneliness in this world so great
that you can see it in the slow movement of the hands of a clock”
― Charles Bukowski, The Pleasures of the Damned

“we had goldfish and they circled around and around
in the bowl on the table near the heavy drapes
covering the picture window and
my mother, always smiling, wanting us all
to be happy, told me, “be happy, Henry!”
and she was right: it’s better to be happy if you
can
but my father continued to beat her and me several times a week while
raging inside his 6-foot-2 frame because he couldn’t
understand what was attacking him from within.


my mother, poor fish,
wanting to be happy, beaten two or three times a
week, telling me to be happy: “Henry, smile!
why don’t you ever smile?”
and then she would smile, to show me how, and it was the
saddest smile I ever saw.


one day the goldfish died, all five of them,
they floated on the water, on their sides, their
eyes still open,
and when my father got home he threw them to the cat
there on the kitchen floor and we watched as my mother
smiled.

A smile to remember”
― Charles Bukowski, The Pleasures of the Damned

“The centuries are sprinkled with rare magic
with divine creatures
who help us get past the common and extraordinary ills that beset us”
― Charles Bukowski, The Pleasures of the Damned

“magic persists without us
no matter what we may do to try to spoil it”
― Charles Bukowski, The Pleasures of the Damned

“And then she would smile, to show me how, and it was the saddest smile I ever saw.”
― Charles Bukowski, The Pleasures of the Damned

“we waste days like mad blackbirds and pray for alcoholic nights
our silk-sick human smiles wrap around us like somebody else's confetti”
― Charles Bukowski, The Pleasures of the Damned

“they say that nothing is wasted: either that or it all is.”
― Charles Bukowski, The Pleasures of the Damned

“it’s not the large things that send a man to the madhouse. death he’s ready for, or murder, incest, robbery, fire, flood … no, it’s the continuing series of small tragedies that send a man to the madhouse …”
― Charles Bukowski, The Pleasures of the Damned: Selected Poems 1951-1993

“fuck everybody.”
― Charles Bukowski, The Pleasures of the Damned: Selected Poems 1951-1993

“no leaders, please invent yourself and then reinvent yourself, don’t swim in the same slough. invent yourself and then reinvent yourself and stay out of the clutches of mediocrity. invent yourself and then reinvent yourself, change your tone and shape so often that they can never categorize you. reinvigorate yourself and accept what is but only on the terms that you have invented and reinvented. be self-taught. and reinvent your life because you must; it is your life and its history and the present belong only to you.”
― Charles Bukowski, The Pleasures of the Damned

“About church: the trouble with a mask is it never changes.”
― Charles Bukowski, The Pleasures of the Damned

“we are a scene chalked out with the sick white brush of age”
― Charles Bukowski, The Pleasures of the Damned

“my poems are only bits of scratching
on the floor of a
cage.”
― Charles Bukowski, The Pleasures of the Damned

“of late
I've had this thought
that this country
has gone backwards
4 or 5 decades
and that all the
social advancement
the good feeling of
person toward
person
has been washed
away
and replaced by the same
old
bigotries

we have
more than ever
the selfish wants of power
the disregard for the
weak
the old
the impoverished
the
helpless.

we are replacing want with
war
salvation with
slavery.

we have wasted the
gains

we have become
rapidly
less.

we have our Bomb
it is our fear
or damnation
and our
shame.

now
something so sad
has hold of us
that
the breath
leaves
and we can't even
cry.

- putrefaction”
― Charles Bukowski, The Pleasures of the Damned

“I get the blues for him, for me, for all of us: for want of something to do we keep slaying our small dragons as the big one waits.”
― Charles Bukowski, The Pleasures of the Damned: Selected Poems 1951-1993

“that boy was ready for his life to come, he would undoubtedly be highly successful, the lying little prick.”
― Charles Bukowski, The Pleasures of the Damned

“take a writer away from his typewriter and all you have left is the sickness which started him typing in the beginning.”
― Charles Bukowski, The Pleasures of the Damned: Selected Poems 1951-1993

“it’s half-past nowhere everywhere.”
― Charles Bukowski, The Pleasures of the Damned: Selected Poems 1951-1993

“I felt better when everything was in
disorder. It will take me some months to get back to normal: I can't even find a roach to commune with. I have lost my rhythm. I can't sleep. I can't eat. I have been robbed of my filth.”
― Charles Bukowski, The Pleasures of the Damned

“art as the spirit wanes the form appears.”
― Charles Bukowski, The Pleasures of the Damned

“I did not like war, even when it was the popular thing to do.”
― Charles Bukowski, The Pleasures of the Damned

“she died of alcoholism
wrapped in a blanket
on a deck chair
on an ocean
steamer.

all her books of
terrified loneliness

all her books about
the cruelty
of loveless love

were all that was left
of her

as the strolling vacationer
discovered her body

notified the captain

and she was quickly dispatched
to somewhere else
on the ship

as everything
continued just
as
she had written it.”
― Charles Bukowski, The Pleasures of the Damned

“it's
necessary for me
sometimes
just to be alone and quiet and
doing nothing.

- my telephone”
― Charles Bukowski, The Pleasures of the Damned

“invent yourself and then reinvent yourself, change your tone and shape so often that they can never categorize you. reinvigorate”
― Charles Bukowski, The Pleasures of the Damned: Selected Poems 1951-1993

“a man can be old and a fool
many are
a man can be young and wise
few are”
― charles bukowski, The Pleasures of the Damned

“it's when you're on the row
that you notice that
everything
is owned
and that there are locks on
everything
this is the way a democracy
works:
you get what you can,
try to keep that
and add to it
if possible”
― Charles Bukowski, The Pleasures of the Damned