Charles Bukowski Quotes

Even though I write about the human race, the further away from them, the better I feel. Two miles is great; two thousand miles is beautiful.

I think, at the end of the day, I have an outsider's heart.

I love New York! You walk around, nobody notices you, you don't notice anybody, you're in your own little world.

I just want to be left alone.

The price for independence is often isolation and solitude.

People come and people go, moving fast and moving slow, I'm in a crowd and yet I'm all alone.

It is not easy to be solitary unless you are also born ruthless. Every solitary repudiates someone.

I am more exempt and more distant than any man in the world.

I have very few friends. I'm an associate of everybody and friend of none.

The manager is by himself. He can't mingle with his players. I enjoyed my players, but I could not socialize with them so I spent a lot of time alone in my hotel room. Those four walls kind of close in on you.

I'm disappearing, avoiding most things.

I hate family pressures and family responsibilities. I'm more comfortable as a stranger. I always imagined I could just live in a hotel. I'm afraid of family.

There were moments when I really just thought, I don't need anything and I don't need anyone. I just want to go away and disappear.

I never said, 'I want to be alone.' I only said, 'I want to be left alone.' There is all the difference.

You must learn to exist with no religion, no country, no allies. You must learn to live alone in silence.

I don't belong to anyone.

I'm in nobody's circle, I've always been an outsider.

I guess part of the hit-man appeal is the solitude. Everybody is lured to the idea of the solitary life.

Let me alone, and go in search of someone else.

My habit of glorifying things far away in space and time, also contributed to my social isolation.

The rare few, who, early in life have rid themselves of the friendship of the many.

Slowly but surely, I went through different phases of fame, and each rises you further into isolation and alienation.

All these cities I go to, I never see them. They may be the most beautiful places in the world, but I'll just usually go to the nearest bar. I need a couple of hours by myself.

I liked Los Angeles for odd reasons. For one, there was no sense of community. You were really left to your own resources, spending this inordinate amount of time alone in a balloon of an automobile. I liked that a lot.

I don't want anybody guarding me. I want to be free; I want to be left alone... I would like to go out there and have no one know me, but at the same time, it would bother me, y'know.