20 Quotes That Prove Charles Bukowski Was A Big Old Softy

culturenlifestyle:

Hate him or love him, nobody could revel and write about the pleasure of being alone more than Charles Bukowski. Often cynical, raw, and anti-social, we are here to prove that the notorious womanizer with a gritty edge had a soft heart. 

Misunderstood, Bukowski’s personality was minimized to his writing style. Bukowski’s daughter, Marina Bukowski revealed they never had a fight. She never witnessed the vision of a drunk poet at home. She told Bukowski.net:

“He wasn’t like what you’d expect from his writing…He was like your typical dad. He’d pick me up from school, and we’d do pretty typical stuff, talk, have dinner. To the rest of the world, he was (the literary) ‘Charles Bukowski.’ To me, he was my father.”

The other most important woman in his life, his wife, Linda Lee Bukowski was the muse for Bukowski’s novels, Women and Hollywood. She recalled their passionate, yet complicated relationship with tenderness. Although, they fought often, she claimed: 

“He was the love of my life. I used to call him ‘the love of all my lives.’ Sometimes he was difficult, but he was also the dearest person to me.”

A complete opposite from “Hanky,” Linda had a safe, cultured upbringing. She confessed that Bukowski began drinking from the age of 13 to endure his father’s physical abuse. She said:

“He had such a painful life. I knew his anger was how he acted against it. He would look for a scapegoat, someone to take it out on, and sometimes it was me. 

She added:

“I taught him about being vulnerable. He became more in tune with the vulnerable side of his personality.”

Although Charles Bukowski’s work often reflected his life, which was plagued with distrust over humankind and hurt, certain glimpses of his poetry and prose exposed his need for less pain and his urgency to find a good companion. Like most of us, he wanted a little love. Below, we have compiled a list of some of Bukowski’s most emotionally sincere and heart-felting excerpts.

“I want to be with you,
it is as simple,
and as complicated as that.”
— Charles Bukowski | REBLOG

“We don’t even ask for happiness, just a little less pain.”
— Charles Bukowski | REBLOG

“I no longer want it all, just some comfort and some sex and some minor love.”
— Charles Bukowski | REBLOG

“…Love breaks my
bones and I
laugh.”
— Charles Bukowski | REBLOG

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