"I was sentimental about many things: a woman's shoes under the bed; one hairpin left behind on the dresser; the way they said "I'm going to pee..."; hair ribbons; walking down the boulevard with them at 1:30 in the afternoon, just two people walking together; the long nights of drinking and smoking, talking; the arguments; thinking of suicide; eating together and feeling good; the jokes, the laughter out of nowhere; feeling miracels in the air; being in a parked car together; comparing past loves at 3am; being told you snore, hearing her snore; mothers, daughters, sons, cats, dogs; sometimes death and sometimes divorce, but always carrying on, always seeing it through; reading a newspaper alone in a sandwich joint feeling nausea because she's now married to a dentist with an I.Q. of 95; racetracks, parks, park picnics; even jails; her dull friends, your dull friends; your drinking, her dancing; your flirting, her flirting; her pills, your fucking on the side, and her doing the same; sleeping together..."

From 'Women' by Charles Bukowski

Things that make life worth living:

Saying the word 'fuck'

Charles Bukowski. Funny. Tragic. Genius. Very readable.

The Idler. Received the new Idler yesterday, making me an extremely happy person. I proceeded to indulge myself all afternoon. Read an interview with Michael Palin, who, it turns out, looks at life in a not too dissimilar fashion to myself. Very sursprising. Very inspiring. He's from Sheffield don'cha know.

Having the afternoon off. Every day!

Drinking in the afternoon. Delightful. You feel so lazy and woozy, and the people in there have less, hmmm, intent I suppose. Everyone's taking their time, wasting away the hours. Lovely.

Living in a city you're familiar with. I'll put this one in despite (or maybe because) we may be leaving. I'll be feeling like this until we leave, and I'll notice everything I have attached here - the thousands and thousands of monuments which have many insignificant, yet comforting, memories.

"I had recently been taking a lot of vitamin E"

"When I came I felt it was in the face of everything decent, white sperm dripping down over the heads and souls of my dead parents. If I had been born a woman I would certainly have been a prostitute. Since I had been born a man, I craved women constantly, the lower the better. And yet women - good women - frightened me because they eventually wanted your soul, and what was left of mine, I wanted to keep. Basically I craved prostitues, base women, because they were deadly and hard and made no personal demands. Nothing was lost when they left. Yet at the same time I yearned for a gentle, good woman, despite the overwhelming price. Either way I was lost. A strong man would give up both. I wasn't strong. So I continued to struggle with women, with the idea of women."

From 'Women' by Charles Bukowski.