Tales of ordinary madness (1972) - Charles Bukowski

Then I began hoping the plane would lose a wing and then I'd really get to see what the faces of the stewardesses looked like.
(p. 33)



"Bukowski ! Just because I have long hair, you think I'm a girl ! My name is Paul ! We were introduced ! Don't you remember ?"
Paul's father, Harvey, was looking at me. I saw his eyes. Then I knew that he had decided that I was not such a good writer after all. Maybe even a bad writer. Well, no man can hide forever.
(p. 47)



Then I noticed the Zen master's ears in the candlelight. The candlelight shone through them as if they were made of the thinnest of toilet paper.
The Zen master had the thinnest ears of any man I had ever seen. That was what made him holy ! I had to have those ears ! For my wallet or my tomcat or my memory. Or for under the pillow.
(p. 49)



Unfortunately, the world was molested with billions of people who had nothing to do with their time except murder it and murder you.
(p. 65)



With me, the racetrack tells me quickly where I am weak and where I am strong, and it tells me how I feel that day and it tells me how much we keep changing ALL the time, and how little we know of this.
(p. 73)



Great poets die in steaming pots of shit.
(p. 79)