Mind on Fire Books

According to Charles Bukowski “Sadness is caused by intelligence, the more you understand certain things, the more you wish you didn’t understand them.”

Charles Bukowski, the gritty poet of the human condition, once wrote, “Sadness is caused by intelligence; the more you understand certain things, the more you wish you didn’t.” This unflinching observation captures the essence of his work—unapologetic, raw, and piercingly honest. Bukowski didn’t shy away from life’s underbelly; he embraced it, distilling its chaos into words that burn with truth.

At Mind on Fire Books, we celebrate writers like Bukowski who challenge complacency and spark reflection. In his honor, here are 15 of his most powerful quotes, each a flame to light up the darkness of conventional thought.

Charles Bukowski: 15 of His Best Quotes

1) “The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts. While the stupid ones are full of confidence.” – Charles Bukowski

2) “Some people never go crazy. What truly horrible lives they must live.” – Charles Bukowski

3)  “Find what you love and let it kill you.” – Bukowski

4) “I wasn’t much for a petty thief. I wanted the whole world or nothing.” – Bukowski

5) “You’ve to die a few times before you actually live.” – Charles Bukowski

6) “Genius might be the ability to say a profound thing in a simple way.” – Bukowski

7) “We are here to drink beer. We are here to kill war. We are here to laugh at the odds and live our lives so well that death will tremble to take us.” – Charles Bukowski

Bukowski: 15 of His Best Quotes Continued

8) “The less I needed, the better I felt.” – Charles Bukowski

9) “What matters most is how well you walk through the fire.” – Charles Bukowski

10) “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.” – Bukowski

11) “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. ” – Charles Bukowski

12) “The free soul is rare, but you know it when you see it – basically because you feel good, very good, when you are near or with them.”  – Charles Bukowski

13) “The nine-to-five is one of the greatest atrocities sprung upon mankind. You give your life away to a function that doesn’t interest you.”  – Bukowski

14) “We must.. We must bring our own light to the darkness” – Charles Bukowski

15) “An intellectual says a simple thing in a hard way. An artist says a hard thing in a simple way.” ― Charles Bukowski

---

Bukowski’s words are not just quotes—they’re sparks that challenge us to live fiercely, think deeply, and embrace the mess of being human. Dive into his works at Mind on Fire Books, where we curate literature that sets your soul ablaze.

Here are three Books by author, Charles Bukowski that you can find on Amazon with affiliate links:

Post Office: A Novel

Post Office is an account of Bukowski alter-ego Henry Chinaski. It covers the period of Chinaski’s life from the mid-1950s to his resignation from the United States Postal Service in 1969, interrupted only by a brief hiatus during which he supported himself by gambling at horse races.

Love is a Dog From Hell:

A book that captures the Dirty Old Man of American letters at his fiercest and most vulnerable, on a subject that hits home with all of us. Charles Bukowski was a man of intense emotions, someone an editor once called a “passionate madman.” Alternating between tough and gentle, sensitive and gritty, Bukowski lays bare the myriad facets of love—its selfishness and its narcissism, its randomness, its mystery and its misery, and, ultimately, its true joyfulness, endurance, and redemptive power.

The Last Night of the Earth Poems:

“The Walt Whitman of Los Angeles.”—Joyce Carol Oates, bestselling author

“He brought everybody down to earth, even the angels.”—Leonard Cohen, songwriter

In The Last Night of the Earth Poems, Charles Bukowski’s gritty poems deal with writing, death and immortality, literature, city life, illness, war, and the past.