Charles Bukowski Quotes

A writer who isn't writing is asking for trouble.

Lots of times I'm not crazy about the writing, but I keep moving ahead and somehow it gets better. The important thing is to move forward.

In everybody’s life there’s a point of no return. And in a very few cases, a point where you can’t go forward anymore. And when we reach that point, all we can do is quietly accept the fact. That’s how we survive.

I think when you get inured with the past, you get committed to the past, you stop growing.

You can fix anything but a blank page.

Failure in life does not matter; the greatest misfortune is standing still.

We will not allow the past to drag us down and stop us from moving ahead. We understand where we should move.

Most people, after accomplishing something, use it over and over again like a gramophone record till it cracks, forgetting that the past is just the stuff with which to make more future.

You have to keep walking, no matter what. If you don't, it's a living death. You're just standing in one place dying.

Philip Larkin didn't write for several years before his life ended. And when he was asked why he didn't write, he said the muse deserted him. And when I read that, it really had a profound effect upon me, sort of scared me. So that's why I think I have no right to assume that some thought is going to come... But I think, in my imagination, if it is it, there will probably be something else I'm interested in.

If you don't have a vision you're going to be stuck in what you know. And the only thing you know is what you've already seen.

No matter what you've gone through in the past, no matter how many setbacks you've suffered or who or what has tried to thwart your progress, today is a new day, and God wants to do a new thing in your life.

The danger would be going back, or staying still. The only way out was through. The past was ruins, but the present was still in play.

I think every writer's had the experience of having a really good idea, waiting to write it, and then once you write it, you're like, "Oh I kind of got past the sell by date on this." I'm not connected to the initial spark that was the idea. A lot of that's about staying open.

Once your mind is caught on the right snag, there's nothing so hard about the mechanics of writing.

I don't believe in "writer's block". I try and deal with getting stuck by having more than one thing to work on at a time. And by knowing that even a hundred bad words that didn't exist before is forward progress.

Don't allow your past or present condition to control you. It's just a process that you're going through to get you to the next level.

What payoff are you getting for remaining stuck at this point in your expansion?

While I was an addict, I didn't write anything. I didn't have the attention span or the will.

If you find yourself stuck in the middle there is only one way to go, forward.

If you act like the river, you ultimately flow past all the rocks along the way.

If we don't progress, we backslide into bad habits, laziness and poor attitude.

Writer’s block is only a failure of the ego.

Yes?’ he asked, looking at me over the sheet. ‘I’m a writer temporarily down on my inspirations.’ ‘Oh, a writer, eh?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘Are you sure?’ ‘No, I’m not.’ ‘What do you write?’ ‘Short stories mostly. And I’m halfway through a novel.’ ‘A novel, eh?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘What’s the name of it?’ ‘”The Leaky Faucet of My Doom.”‘ ‘Oh, I like that. What’s it about?’ ‘Everything.’ ‘Everything? You mean, for instance, it’s about cancer?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘How about my wife?’ ‘She’s in there too.

I'm a writer and writers either have good memories or nothing at all.