Charles Bukowski Quotes

People have no idea what a hard job it is for two writers to be friends. Sooner or later you have to talk about each other's work.

Coming from Britain, I was terrified of meeting all these other artists, because artists over there tend to fight with each other a lot, the premise being that there's not enough room for everybody.

In their pursuit of the same supreme end, Matisse and Picasso stand side by side, Matisse representing color and Picasso form.

You couldn't forget Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse and Joan Miro either. And it had to be, you know, at least as good or better.

A painter once told me that I'm like the Khajuraho, which you see once but which remains with you forever. I thought that was exquisite.

I enjoy being influenced by other writers.

I'd be far too self-conscious and insecure if I suspected my editor might be a better novelist than I.

Picabia is a very old painter who some people try to connect me to, but I refuse such comparisons very well.

My kids are the most inspiring thing that pushes me. It used to be because they were born, and I had to take care of them. Now it's because my son raps, and he's better than me. So now I gotta keep up with him, you know what I'm saying?

I'll never be Bob Dylan. He's the master.

I can't paint as well as Vermeer.

Colleagues will malign you if you're a moderately successful journalist.

I have a lot of respect for all the artists I get compared to, even if, as an artist, you prefer to have your own identity.

No, I didn't become disenchanted. I just couldn't paint like them.

The idea of competition, particularly in a creative atmosphere, is always there. And, if you don't acknowledge that, you are doing yourself and the process a disservice.

We were always drawing comics as kids. My brother Charles made me draw comics. I was very much under his domination. He was actually a much stronger artistic visionary than I was.

The praise of ancient authors proceeds not from the reverence of the dead, but from the competition and mutual envy of the living.

I don't think that I'm over his influence but they probably don't look like Picassos; Picasso himself would probably have thrown up looking at my pictures.

I'm often reading a magazine and hearing about someone's new record, and I think, 'Oh, boy, that's gonna be better than me.' It's a very common thing.

I always thought competition was for horse races and it never belonged in art. I never felt that competitive with other girl singers, really.

I always like to see if the art across the street is better than mine.

My father was a great inspiration, and there was a bit of competition between us. He'd work in his studio, and I'd work in my space, but the door was always half open.

Those damned Abstract Expressionists. They were a major problem. Because the critics adored them to such an extent, reams and reams, pages and pages of articles about Abstract Expressionists, when we came along, we were just not taken seriously at all.

All artists are socialists until they see another artist with a bigger house than theirs.

It puzzles me when writers say they can't read fiction when they're writing fiction because they don't want to be influenced. I'm totally open to useful influence. I'm praying for it.