Writer Quotes by Charles Bukowski

great books are the ones we need

— Charles Bukowski

Fiction is an improvement on life

— Charles Bukowski

“You’ll never be a writer if you hide from reality.”

— Charles Bukowski

There's no way I can stop writing, it's a form of insanity.

— Charles Bukowski

“while most people converse it all away I write it down.”

— Charles Bukowski

“Hey baby, when I write, I'm the hero of my shit.”

— Charles Bukowski

Writers are nothing but beggars with a good line.

— Charles Bukowski

Beware Those Who Are ALWAYS READING BOOKS

— Charles Bukowski

take a writer away from his typewriter and all you have left is the sickness which started him typing in the beginning

— Charles Bukowski

writers are desperate people and when they stop being desperate they stop being writers.

— Charles Bukowski

The writer has no responsibility other than to jack off in bed alone and write a good page.

— Charles Bukowski

There was nothing glorious about the life of a drinker or the life of a writer.

— Charles Bukowski

He asked, "What makes a man a writer?" "Well," I said, "it's simple. You either get it down on paper, or jump…

— Charles Bukowski

If I stop writing I am dead. And that's the only way I'll stop: dead.

— Charles Bukowski

I often carry things to read so that I will not have to look at the people.

— Charles Bukowski

Lawyers, doctors, plumbers, they all made the money. Writers? Writers starved. Writers suicided. Writers went mad.

— Charles Bukowski

People just don't know how to write down a simple easy line. It's difficult for them; it's like trying to keep a…

— Charles Bukowski

The worst thing for a writer is to know another writer, and worse than that, to know a number of other writers.…

— Charles Bukowski

I never write in the daytime. It's like running through the shopping mall with your clothes off. Everybody can see you. At…

— Charles Bukowski

I seldom know what I'm going to write when I sit down. There isn't much agony and sweat of the human spirit…

— Charles Bukowski

“There is only one place to write and that is alone at a typewriter. A writer who has to go into the…

— Charles Bukowski

I write as a function. Without it I would fall ill and die. It's as much a part of one as the…

— Charles Bukowski

That's how it is with books, isn't it: They're not in a hurry. They'll wait for you till you're ready. People empty…

— Charles Bukowski

I don't carry notebooks and I don't consciously store ideas. I try not to think that I am a writer and I…

— Charles Bukowski

And if there is anybody out there who is crazy enough to want to become a writer, I'd say go ahead, spit…

— Charles Bukowski

“another hot summer night as I sit here and play at being a writer again. and the worst thing of course is…

— Charles Bukowski

Yes?’ he asked, looking at me over the sheet. ‘I’m a writer temporarily down on my inspirations.’ ‘Oh, a writer, eh?’ ‘Yes.’…

— Charles Bukowski

he asked, "what makes a man a writer?" "well," I said, "it's simple, it's either you get it down on paper or…

— Charles Bukowski

“The truth, however, was that there was very little greatness. It was almost nonexistent, invisible. But you could be sure that the…

— Charles Bukowski

“I walked around the library looking for books. I pulled them off the shelves, one by one. But they were all tricks.…

— Charles Bukowski

There were always men looking for jobs in America. There were always all these usable bodies. And I wanted to be a…

— Charles Bukowski

“Writing was never work for me. It had been the same for as long as I could remember: turn on the radio…

— Charles Bukowski

There's nothing to stop a man from writing unless that man stops himself. If a man truly desires to write, then he…

— Charles Bukowski

“Yes, I know what you mean about writing and writers. We seem to have lost the target. Writers seem to write to…

— Charles Bukowski

Writing is something that you don't know how to do. You sit down and it's something that happens, or it may not…

— Charles Bukowski

“There is a problem with writers. If what a writer wrote was published and sold many, many copies, the writer thought he…

— Charles Bukowski

“So you want to be a writer if it doesn’t come bursting out of you in spite of everything, don’t do it.…

— Charles Bukowski

Do some living and get yourself a typewriter.

— Charles Bukowski

The secret is writing down one simple line after another.

— Charles Bukowski

Don't ever write a novel unless it hurts like a hot turd coming out.

— Charles Bukowski