"Drinking is an emotional thing. It joggles you out of the standardism of everyday life, out of everything being the same. It yanks you out of your body and your mind and throws you against the wall. I have the feeling that drinking is a form of suicide where you're allowed to return to life and begin all over the next day. It's like killing yourself, and then you're reborn. I guess I've lived about ten or fifteen thousand lives now"
About this Quote
The provocation is the suicide metaphor, and it lands because it’s both confession and sales pitch. “A form of suicide where you’re allowed to return” reframes self-destruction as a loophole: the ritual death that doesn’t demand permanence. That’s the subtextual bargain of addiction rendered with Bukowski’s characteristic candor: he knows it’s fatalistic, but he also knows it’s functional. When the day is intolerable, partial annihilation becomes the cheapest available reset button.
Context matters. Bukowski wrote from the inside of mid-century American grind culture - postwar conformity, factory jobs, rented rooms, the sense that “normal” is its own slow death. His poetry and persona are built on refusing respectable narratives of self-improvement. The line about “ten or fifteen thousand lives” is both bravado and grief: a mythic tally that masks a smaller truth, that each “rebirth” is also a narrowing. The wit is grim, the lyricism bruised. He’s not asking for pity; he’s documenting a method of survival that looks suspiciously like rehearsal for the end.
Quote Details
| Topic | Mental Health |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Bukowski, Charles. (2026, February 10). Drinking is an emotional thing. It joggles you out of the standardism of everyday life, out of everything being the same. It yanks you out of your body and your mind and throws you against the wall. I have the feeling that drinking is a form of suicide where you're allowed to return to life and begin all over the next day. It's like killing yourself, and then you're reborn. I guess I've lived about ten or fifteen thousand lives now. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/drinking-is-an-emotional-thing-it-joggles-you-out-185150/
Chicago Style
Bukowski, Charles. "Drinking is an emotional thing. It joggles you out of the standardism of everyday life, out of everything being the same. It yanks you out of your body and your mind and throws you against the wall. I have the feeling that drinking is a form of suicide where you're allowed to return to life and begin all over the next day. It's like killing yourself, and then you're reborn. I guess I've lived about ten or fifteen thousand lives now." FixQuotes. February 10, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/drinking-is-an-emotional-thing-it-joggles-you-out-185150/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Drinking is an emotional thing. It joggles you out of the standardism of everyday life, out of everything being the same. It yanks you out of your body and your mind and throws you against the wall. I have the feeling that drinking is a form of suicide where you're allowed to return to life and begin all over the next day. It's like killing yourself, and then you're reborn. I guess I've lived about ten or fifteen thousand lives now." FixQuotes, 10 Feb. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/drinking-is-an-emotional-thing-it-joggles-you-out-185150/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.
