Hollywood, by Charles Bukowski

The best part of a writer is on paper.

Hollywood, by Charles Bukowski

“DO NOT SPEAK TO ME, SPEAK TO THIS MACHINE.  I DO NOT WISH TO SPEAK.  SPEAK TO THIS MACHINE.  I AM NOWHERE AND YOU ARE ALSO NOWHERE.  DEATH COMES WITH HIS LITTLE HANDS TO GRIP US.  I DO NOT WISH TO SPEAK.  SPEAK TO THE MACHINE.”

Hollywood, by Charles Bukowski

One of my successes in life was that in spite of all the crazy things I had done, I was perfectly normal: I chose to do things, they didn’t choose me.

Hollywood, by Charles Bukowski

“Can you sleep at night?” I asked.

“We have to drink to sleep.  And then you can never be sure.  Those bars on the windows might not mean much.  My neighbor has them.  The other night he’s eating dinner alone and then there’s a man standing behind him with a gun.  Somehow he got in through the roof.  There’s some kind of passageway up there.  They are under the house and in the roof.  They can hear everything we say.  They are listening now.”

Four loud taps came up through the floorboards.

Hollywood, by Charles Bukowski

In a capitalistic society the losers slaved for the winners and you have to have more losers than winners.

Hollywood, by Charles Bukowski

Two young blacks about eleven years old stared at us from bicycles.  It was pure, perfect hate.  I could feel it.  Poor blacks hated.  Poor whites hated.  It was only when blacks got money and whites got money that they mixed.

Hollywood, by Charles Bukowski

Wenner Zergog had borrowed the 1958 Ford and by driving the car without putting water in the radiator had cracked the engine block.

“He’s a genius,” Jon told me.  “He doesn’t know about such things.”

Hollywood, by Charles Bukowski

The world had somehow gone too  far, and spontaneous kindness could never be so easy.

Hollywood, by Charles Bukowski

I lapsed into my pathetic cut-off period.  Often with humans, both good and bad, my senses simply shut off, they get tired, I give up.  I am polite.  I nod.  I pretend to understand because I don’t want anybody to be hurt.  That is the one weakness that has led me into the most trouble.  Trying to be kind to others I often get my soul shredded into a kind of spiritual pasta.

Hollywood, by Charles Bukowski

“Love and Genius are two of the most over-used words in the language,” I said.