Charles Bukowski Quotes

I'm self-sufficient. I spend a lot of time on my own and I shut off quite easily. When I communicate, I communicate 900 per cent, then I shut off, which scares people sometimes.

People drain me, even the closest of friends, and I find loneliness to be the best state in the union to live in.

I am not reclusive. I just have a private life.

I prefer to stay in if I have a choice. I lose energy being around people. I know that sounds horrible.

I'm quite a loner. I realized that I'm very introverted, and I get energy by being alone instead of being with other people.

I'm really outgoing, but there's times I want to be by myself.

My mom is an excellent mom. She knows I am irascible, prickly, and antisocial. She knows that most human interaction makes me tired and that I either scare people away with precise invectives or trot out the fakest, nicest skinjob of myself because it requires zero effort.

I don't go around making conversation, I just kind of stick to myself.

Why don't I like crowds? I suppose the worst possible thing I could say is that I don't like people, and that crowds are just collections of people. That seems like a very nihilistic way to look at the world.

People who can't be alone have a problem. Loneliness is a luxury for people like me.

I loved being in my own head so much, it was getting harder and harder being with other people.

One day I shall write a little book of conduct myself, and I shall call it Social Problems of the Unsociable. And the root problem, beneath a hundred varying manifestions, is How to Escape. How to escape, that is, at those times, be they few or frequent, when you want to keep yourself to yourself.

You wouldn't know it, from some of the things I've said over the years, but I like people. I do. I like people, but I like them in short bursts. I don't like people for extended periods of time. I'm all right with them for a little while, but once you get up past around... a minute, minute and a half, I gotta get the fuck out of there.

I can't have a lot of people around me all the time. It really bugs me out that I have that many people. I need to be by myself.

I'm not reclusive at all. Just private.

I am pretty antisocial and have difficulty communicating with other human beings. I know that if I were in Philly I'd still mostly be hanging out in my apartment reading books and playing with synthesizers. That said, I grew up in Philly, went to college in Philly, lived in Philly afterwards for a while - almost every formative experience in my life has happened in Philly. Whether I like it or not, Philly is all over everything I do for the rest of my life.

I feel better when I am not around people. When I am alone, alone, alone.

I'm a little bit antisocial and I recently discovered that I'm introverted. But the love between people makes me alive.

I'm not to the point where I need to shut myself off from people, unless I feel like I need to, but I don't force myself to deal with people.

I'm extremely introverted. I used to think it was shyness, but I got over that, so it must be door No. 2. It's still hard for me to be away from home much, and I have to make sure I get lots of time alone in my room when I'm touring.

I'm a happy guy, but if I'm in a rare dark mood, I won't go out because I don't want to be horrible to people.

I'm not even speaking to people any more; I just want to be reading my Kindle the whole time!

Nothing personal; I just don't have people over.

I'm really not that comfortable with people. I mean, I love individuals, but I'm not very social.

I'm kind of a recluse when it comes to going outside.