"Are people crazy? People waited all their lives. They waited to live, they waited to die. They waited in line to buy toilet paper. They waited in line for money. And if they didn't have any money they waited in longer lines. You waited to go to sleep and then you waited to awaken. You waited to get married and you waited to get divorced. You waited for it to rain, you waited for it to stop. You waited to eat and then you waited to eat again. You waited in a shrink's office with a bunch of psychos and you wondered if you were one"
About this Quote
The technique is blunt-force accumulation. Sentence after sentence begins with "They waited" or "You waited", a drumbeat that mimics the very monotony he’s attacking. Bukowski’s genius here is that the list slides between the banal (toilet paper, rain) and the existential (to live, to die) without changing tone. That flatness is the point: modern life trains you to treat your own mortality like another errand.
The class subtext lands hardest in the small, bitter pivot: people wait in line for money, and the poor wait longer. It’s not just impatience; it’s a system where time itself is unevenly distributed, where boredom and humiliation are part of the price of being broke. Even therapy gets dragged into the joke: the "shrink's office" becomes another waiting room, another institution monetizing distress while offering no escape from the pattern.
Written in a late-20th-century America of bureaucracy, recession cycles, and fraying social trust, the quote reads like Bukowski’s anti-self-help manifesto. The final line twists the knife: after enough waiting, you don’t just question the world’s sanity - you start wondering if your acceptance of it is the real diagnosis.
Quote Details
| Topic | Meaning of Life |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Bukowski, Charles. (2026, February 10). Are people crazy? People waited all their lives. They waited to live, they waited to die. They waited in line to buy toilet paper. They waited in line for money. And if they didn't have any money they waited in longer lines. You waited to go to sleep and then you waited to awaken. You waited to get married and you waited to get divorced. You waited for it to rain, you waited for it to stop. You waited to eat and then you waited to eat again. You waited in a shrink's office with a bunch of psychos and you wondered if you were one. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/are-people-crazy-people-waited-all-their-lives-185163/
Chicago Style
Bukowski, Charles. "Are people crazy? People waited all their lives. They waited to live, they waited to die. They waited in line to buy toilet paper. They waited in line for money. And if they didn't have any money they waited in longer lines. You waited to go to sleep and then you waited to awaken. You waited to get married and you waited to get divorced. You waited for it to rain, you waited for it to stop. You waited to eat and then you waited to eat again. You waited in a shrink's office with a bunch of psychos and you wondered if you were one." FixQuotes. February 10, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/are-people-crazy-people-waited-all-their-lives-185163/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Are people crazy? People waited all their lives. They waited to live, they waited to die. They waited in line to buy toilet paper. They waited in line for money. And if they didn't have any money they waited in longer lines. You waited to go to sleep and then you waited to awaken. You waited to get married and you waited to get divorced. You waited for it to rain, you waited for it to stop. You waited to eat and then you waited to eat again. You waited in a shrink's office with a bunch of psychos and you wondered if you were one." FixQuotes, 10 Feb. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/are-people-crazy-people-waited-all-their-lives-185163/. Accessed 26 Mar. 2026.
