“I never met another man I'd rather be. And even if that's a delusion, it's a lucky one.”
in Bukowski: Born Into This (2002)
Varianta: I've never met another man I'd rather be.
“I drive around the streets
an inch away from weeping,
ashamed of my sentimentality and
possible love.”
Zdroj: Love Is a Dog from Hell
Varianta: Love is all right for those who can handle the psychic overload. It’s like trying to carry a full garbage can on your back over a rushing river of piss.
Zdroj: Women
“each man's hell is in a different place:
mine is just up and behind
my ruined face.”
Varianta: each man's hell is in a different
place: mine is just up and
behind
my ruined
face.
--from Let's Make a Deal
Zdroj: You Get So Alone at Times That it Just Makes Sense
“It was like the beginning of life and laughter. It was the real meaning of the sun”
Zdroj: Factotum
“In the morning it was morning and I was still alive.”
Zdroj: Post Office
“the tigers have found me
and I do not care.”
Varianta: what you were
will not happen again.
the tigers have found me
and I do not care.
“Women were meant to suffer; no wonder they asked for constant declarations of love”
Post Office (1971)
Kontext: Fay had a spot of blood on the left side of her mouth and I took a wet cloth and wiped it off. Women were meant to suffer; no wonder they asked for constant declarations of love.
Zdroj: Factotum (1975), Ch. 73
Kontext: There were always men looking for jobs in America. There were always all these usable bodies. And I wanted to be a writer. Almost everybody was a writer. Not everybody thought they could be a dentist or an automobile mechanic but everybody knew they could be a writer. Of those fifty guys in the room, probably fifteen of them thought they were writers. Almost everybody used words and could write them down, i. e., almost everybody could be a writer. But most men, fortunately, aren't writers, or even cab drivers, and some men - many men - unfortunately aren't anything.
“Maybe she hadn’t saved the world but she had made a major improvement.”
Post Office (1971)
Kontext: I squeezed Fay’s hand, kissed her on the forehead. She closed her eyes and seemed to sleep then. She was not a young woman. Maybe she hadn’t saved the world but she had made a major improvement. Ring one up for Fay.
“so it's always a process of letting go, one way or another”
Zdroj: The Roominghouse Madrigals: Early Selected Poems, 1946-1966