Charles Bukowski Quotes

The point is not to take the world's opinion as a guiding star but to go one's way in life and working unerringly, neither depressed by failure nor seduced by applause.

The strong man is strongest when alone.

We aren’t here to be loved.

You gotta make your own way. You gotta find a way. You gotta get it done. It's hard. It's tough. That's what I tell my students every day in class. I've been very fortunate. Some people might call me a hardhead, but I'm not going to let other people dictate to me who I should be or the stories I should tell. That doesn't register with me.

I don't need to be liked.

I don't care what people think or say about me, I know who I am.

My mom raised me to never have anything control me.

You have enough people against you... be for yourself.

When you make the right decision, it doesn't really matter what anyone else thinks.

My own eight children all march to the beat of their inner music, and in some cases, it is definitely far away from what I hear. I've had to honor their instincts and their choices, and merely guided them out of harm's way until they could be their own guides.

Never let oneself be guided by the opinion of one's contemporaries. Continue steadfastly on one's way.

My mom was an orphan, and there was never anybody to tell her what she could or couldn't do. At the core, she's probably an artist - an artist and a feminist.

You must learn to exist with no religion, no country, no allies. You must learn to live alone in silence.

I stayed on my own path and did not follow the herd. I made a way for myself.

I didn't have anybody, really, no foundation in life, so I had to make my own way. Always, from the start. I had to go out in the world and become strong, to discover my mission in life.

My definition of courage is never letting anyone define you.

You cannot rely on other people's support.

Freedom comes from strength and self-reliance.

I know what I can do so it doesn't bother me what other people think or their opinion on the situation.

I don't need anybody to tell me how to be alive.

I'm stronger knowing that while Donna Rice could be sold, she could not be bought.

We all have to work for happiness. And you cannot listen to other people. That is the worst mistake you can make.

I like strength. I depend on my own.

Since being quite young, I've had a very strong sense of independence and survival. As a child, I was on my own two feet emotionally.

We become strong, I feel, when we have no friends upon whom to lean, or to look to for moral guidance.