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How in the hell could a man enjoy being awakened at 6:30 a.m. 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?

— Charles Bukowski Factotum (1975)

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More quotes by Charles Bukowski

I've never met another man I'd rather be.

Bukowski: Born Into This (2002)

But most men, fortunately, aren't writers, or even cab drivers, and some men - many men - unfortunately aren't anything.

Factotum (1975)

Not everybody thought they could be a dentist or an automobile mechanic but everybody knew they could be a writer.

Factotum (1975)

For each Joan of Arc there is a Hitler perched at the other end of the teeter-totter. The old story of good and evil.

Factotum (1975)

My ambition is handicapped by my laziness.

Factotum (1975)

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All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

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When we see a great man desiring power instead of his real goal we soon recognize that he is sick, or more precisely that his attitude to his work is sick.

Martin Buber What is Man? (1938)

The fact is the sweetest dream that labor knows.

Robert Frost A Boy's Will (1913)

In a society such as ours, it is almost impossible for a person to be responsible.

Jacques Ellul The Betrayal by Technology (1993)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Charles Bukowski (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.