“Baby,” I said, “I’m a genius but nobody knows it but me.” — Charles Butowski

I just want to share some of my favorite quotes with you all in hopes that you get curious about who Butowski was and dive deep into his works of writing.

Some people never go crazy. What truly horrible lives they must live.

In my work, as a writer, I only photograph, in words, what I see.

You have to die a few times before you can really live.

He asked, “What makes a man a writer?” Well, I said, “it’s simple. You either get it down on paper or jump off a bridge.”

If you’re going to try, go all the way. Otherwise, don’t even start. This could mean losing girlfriends, wives, relatives, and maybe even your mind. It could mean not eating for three or four days. It could mean freezing on a park bench. It could mean jail. It could mean derision. It could mean mockery–isolation. Isolation is the gift. All the others are a test of your endurance, of how much you really want to do it. And, you’ll do it, despite rejection and the worst odds. And it will be better than anything else you can imagine. If you’re going to try, go all the way. There is no other feeling like that. You will be alone with the gods, and the nights will flame with fire. You will ride life straight to perfect laughter. It’s the only good fight there is.

Anything is a waste of time unless you are f*cking well or creating well or getting well or looming toward a kind of phantom-love-happiness.

I loved you like a man loves a woman he never touches, only writes to, keeps little photographs of.

I guess the only time most people think about injustice is when it happens to them.

How the hell could a person enjoy being awakened at 6:30AM, by an alarm clock, leap out of bed, dress, force-feed, shit, piss, brush teeth and hair, and fight traffic to get to a place where essentially you made lots of money for somebody else and were asked to be grateful for the opportunity to do so?

We’re all going to die, all of us, what a circus! That alone should make us love each other but it doesn’t. We are terrorized and flattened by trivialities, we are eaten up by nothing.