Charles Bukowski Quotes

You have to choose between what the world expects of you and what you want for yourself.

You are free to do what you want, but you are not free to want what you want.

What is it to you if I don't want others to want for me, if I want to want myself - if I want the impossible.

Focus on yourself -- do what you want, when you want, without having to consider anyone else's agenda.

. . . the great thing to learn about life is, first, not to do what you don't want to do, and, second, to do what you do want to do.

What does it mean to be an individual? What does it mean to flourish?

I wouldn't push my kids to do anything. I want them to be happy, healthy, and I want them to be who they want to be, you know?

Men weary as much of not doing the things they want to do as of doing the things they do not want to do.

I didn't know I was a slave until I found out I couldn't do the things I wanted.

Today, charting your own course isn't just more necessary than ever before. It's also much easier - and much more fun.

It's frustrating not to have more control over your material.

I do what I like now. I just don't have time for it all.

When you spend a lot of time, like I do, just standing around and waiting, or being moved from place to place, every minute gets consumed by something someone else has set up for you. And it's not like I'm always in a beautiful place wearing something gorgeous.

I wasn't allowed to leave Romania. That made me mad. You just want your freedom. You want your space. You want opportunity.

Honestly, going solo is the second best thing that's ever happened to me after my kids.

I want to inspire people to follow their own dream, not what the world wants for them.

I want to follow my path.

I wish to live for myself. I should never want to be trapped.

Nobody knows what you want except you, and no one will be as sorry as you if you don't get it.

Life is brief and to have to spend every day of it doing what somebody else wants you to do is not the way to live it.

I really like my life. I've arranged my life so that I can do what I want.

Nobody can tell you what to do. No matter what they pay you. No matter what obligations you feel you owe them. Every second defines you. Be who you are, not who anyone else is, or who anyone else wants you to be.

I am increasingly an architect of self. I am free to will and choose. I can, through accepting my individuality... become more of my uniqueness, more of my potentiality.

I haven't even had a life I could call my own, and you're ready to slot me into the grand design. Well, I don't think I want to go. I want to be my own design.

The best you'll ever do is to understand yourself, know what it is that you want, and not let the cattle stand in your way.