sign in| help
Search advanced search
 
Books
Search:
x dismiss this message

Did you know you can edit this page?

Women
  • Rated 0 stars
Read Women

Women (1978) (edit title/settings)

by Charles Bukowski (Author) (edit contributors)

Share this book on:
see page history

Description edit see section history

Low-life writer and unrepentant alcoholic Henry Chinaski was born to survive. After decades of slacking off at low-paying dead-end jobs, blowing his cash on booze and women, and scrimping by in flea-bitten apartments, Chinaski sees his poetic star rising at last. Now, at fifty, he is reveling... read more

Popular Covers

Loading covers…

Choose your book’s cover

Quotes edit see section history

  • “...when I was in good spiritual shape I ate off one dish and then washed it immediately.”
  • “Time was motionless while existence was a throbbing unbearable thing.”
  • “"You're good enough with the ladies", Dee Dee said, "And you're helluva writer.""I'd rather be good with the ladies."”
  • “I was glad I wasn't in love, that I wasn't happy with the world. I like being at odds with everything. People in love often become edgy, dangerous. They lose their sense of perspective.They lose their sense of humor. They become nervous, psychotic bores. They even become killers.”
  • “Most people are much better at saying things in letters than in conversation, and some people can write artistic, inventive letters, but when they try a poem or story or novel they become pretentious,”
  • “I felt foolish paying money to go into a movie theatre and sit with other people to share their emotions.”
  • “And yet women-good women-frightened me because they eventually wanted your soul, and what was left of mine, I wanted to keep. Basically I craved prostitutes, base women, because they were deadly and hard and made no personal demands. Yet at the same time I yearned for a gentle, good woman, despite the overwhelming price. Either way I was lost. A strong man would give up both. I wasn't strong. So I continued to struggle with women, with the idea of women.”
  • “I didn't know what other writers needed;I didn't care, I couldn't read them anyway. I was locked into my own habits and prejudices. It wasn't bad being dumb if the ignorance was all your own.”
  • “In a sense, as much as I disliked it, education helped when you were looking at a menu or for a job, especially when you were looking at a menu. I always felt inferior to waiters (...)The waiters all read Truman Capote. I read the race results.”
  • “Readings diminished me. They were soul-sucks.”
  • “I never pump up my vulgarity. I wait for it to arrive on its own terms.”
  • “Love is a form of prejudice. I have too many other prejudices.”
  • “"I think people should take the time to get to know each other.""Sometimes there's not that much time."”
  • “That was the way it was with people. The longer you knew them the more their eccentricities showed. Sometimes their eccentricities were humorous - in the beginning.”
  • “People diminished me, they sucked me dry."Humanity, you never had it from the beginning". That was my motto.”
  • “"Do you believe in bravery?"(...)"It makes me feel good. It's a matter of style in the face of no chance at all."”
  • “It was almost disappointing because it seemed when stress and madness were eliminated from my daily life there wasn't much left you could depend on.”
  • “Love was for guitar players, Catholics and chess freaks.”
  • “It felt good to be out of the U.S.A. There was a real difference. The women looked better, things felt calmer, less false.”
  • “I've always been a slow starter.”
  • “There were tricks you could play with a Coleman lantern. Like turning it off and then on again and watching the heat of the wick relight it.”
  • “"De unde veneau toate femeile? Sursa parea inepuizabila. Fiecare dintre ele era unica,diferita. ....erau diferite, saruturile, titele lor erau diferite, dar nici un barbat nu le putea avea pe toate, erau prea multe, incrutisindu-si cracii, inebunindu-i pe barbati. Ce mai ospat? "”
  • Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers
  • That’s the problem with drinking, I thought, as I poured myself a drink. If something bad happens you drink in an attempt to forget; if something good happens you drink in order to celebrate; and if nothing happens you drink to make something happen.
    Highlighted by 208 Kindle customers
  • People had to find things to do while waiting to die. I guess it was nice to have a choice.
    Highlighted by 118 Kindle customers
  • I was glad I wasn’t in love, that I wasn’t happy with the world. I like being at odds with everything. People in love often become edgy, dangerous. They lose their sense of perspective. They lose their sense of humor. They become nervous, psychotic bores. They even become killers.
    Highlighted by 117 Kindle customers
  • Pain is strange. A cat killing a bird, a car accident, a fire…. Pain arrives, BANG, and there it is, it sits on you. It’s real. And to anybody watching, you look foolish. Like you’ve suddenly become an idiot. There’s no cure for it unless you know somebody who understands how you feel, and knows how to help.
    Highlighted by 110 Kindle customers
  • Human relationships were strange. I mean, you were with one person a while, eating and sleeping and living with them, loving them, talking to them, going places together, and then it stopped. Then there was a short period when you weren’t with anybody, then another woman arrived, and you ate with her and fucked her, and it all seemed so normal, as if you had been waiting just for her and she had been waiting for you. I never felt right being alone; sometimes it felt good but it never felt right.
    Highlighted by 92 Kindle customers
  • Every woman is different. Basically they seem to be a combination of the best and the worst—both magic and terrible. I’m glad that they exist, however.”
    Highlighted by 89 Kindle customers
  • Morals were restrictive, but they were grounded on human experience down through the centuries. Some morals tended to keep people slaves in factories, in churches and true to the State. Other morals simply made good sense. It was like a garden filled with poisoned fruit and good fruit. You had to know which to pick and eat, which to leave alone.
    Highlighted by 70 Kindle customers
  • It was almost disappointing because it seemed when stress and madness were eliminated from my daily life there wasn’t much left you could depend on.
    Highlighted by 60 Kindle customers
  • Maybe I should have slammed her? How did a man know what to do? Generally, I decided, it was better to wait, if you had any feeling for the individual. If you hated her right off, it was better to fuck her right off; if you didn’t, it was better to wait, then fuck her and hate her later on.
    Highlighted by 52 Kindle customers
  • “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.” “Oh, it’s not that bad!” “Love is a form of prejudice. I have too many other prejudices.”
    Highlighted by 41 Kindle customers
Show all 32 quotes from this book

First Sentence edit see section history

I was 50 years old and hadn't been to bed with a woman for four years.

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

  1. Charles Bukowski (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Original Language: English
Publisher: Black Sparrow Press
Country: USA
Publication Date: October 1978
ISBN: 0876853912
Page Count: 290

Classification edit see section history

We’re hiding the errata, movie connections, books that influenced this book, books influenced by this book, books that cite this book and books cited by this book sections. If you would like to add content to them, you must first make them visible.

© 2006-2012 Shelfari | Terms & Conditions | Privacy Policy | Copyright Policy

Close