An intellectual says a simple thing in a hard way. An artist... - Charles Bukowski

"nothing can save you except writing. it keeps the walls from failing."

"my mother, poor fish,wanting to be happy, beaten two or three times aweek, telling me to be happy: "Henry, smile!why don't you ever smile?"and then she would smile, to show me how, and it was thesaddest smile I ever saw"

"I carry death in my left pocket. Sometimes I take it out and talk to it: "Hello, baby, how you doing? When you coming for me? I'll be ready."

"Poetry is what happens when nothing else can."

"what matters most is how well you walk through the fire"