Charles Bukowski Quotes

What I learned for myself... is that no matter what the circumstances, people survive.

If it were any other way, it would be easy. And if it were any other way, everyone would do it and your work would ultimately be devalued. The yin and yang are clear: without people pushing against your quest to do something worth talking about, it's unlikely it would be worth the journey. Persist.

I never listened to the people who said I should give it up, which is the main advice I got.

There are seldom, if ever, any hopeless situations, but there are many people who lose hope in the face of some situations.

The people dreamed and fought and slept as much as ever. And by habit they shortened their thoughts so that they would not wander out into the darkness beyond tomorrow.

Life, people learned, was not easy. Life was not cake. Life was not a carrot cake.

We have a long way to go, some tough issues ahead of us, and I'm sure there will be some obstacles in the path ... But the good faith effort that's being put into this absolutely is encouraging to me and gives me hope.

My whole life has been spent with people who have taken every knock in the world. No advantages. Yet they greet you with a big smile, they give you what they have, and they keep coming back. They are the fighters.

I've been bumped, I've had to go up after them, I've had stuff thrown at me, I've been booed. I've had people steal from me and lie to me.

Life has a way of kicking one along like a football, or so I've found. Fate had never dealt me personally a particularly easy time, but that was OK, that was normal. Most people, it seemed to me, took their turn to be football. Most survived. Some didn't.

It is very rare that you meet with obstacles in this world, which the humblest man has not faculties to surmount.

No one wants to see cool people doing brilliantly. I want to see the struggle. That's the fun bit.

Yes great people are always subject to persecution and always getting into straits.

seek and learn to recognize who and what, in the midst of inferno, are not inferno, then make them endure, give them space

Who said the road doesn’t have bumps? It can still be traveled. So people can fall down: it doesn’t mean they can’t get up again and keep going.

I welcome challenges. I like challenges. It gives me a reason to keep going.

A lot of people say, 'Well, I like a challenge. 'I don't like challenges. Life is tough enough without any challenges.

I like challenges and I don't believe in failure. I don't believe in regrets. I believe suffering, failure - all those concepts - are things that are absolutely necessary to make us the best people that we can be, the best at whatever we want to do.

Tough times never last, but tough people do. You might add, "You're tougher than you give yourself credit for."

I've been a victor of circumstance.

Every area of trouble gives out a ray of hope; and the one unchangeable certainty is that nothing is certain or unchangeable.

The world is not against you, but the world is a place where bad things happen. It's just true. Airlines crash, people do evil things. A lot of bad things happen and it causes pain.

Any defeat, however trivial, may be fatal to a savior of the plain people. They never admire a messiah with a bloody nose.

Gloom and despondency have never defeated adversity. Trying times need courage and resilience. Our strength as a people is not tested during the best of times.

Life is a cruel teacher. She loves to give you the test first and the lesson later.