Poetry is what happens when nothing else can. - Charles Bukowski

"She's mad, but she's magic. There's no lie in her fire."

"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"

"Sometimes you just have to pee in the sink."

"When I begin to doubt my ability to work the word, I simply read another writer and know I have nothing to worry about. My contest is only with myself, to do it right, with power, and force, and delight, and gamble."

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