Wealth & Money Quote by Charles Bukowski

Bukowski turns poverty into a punchline and then quietly makes it a credo. The line starts with the blunt self-inventory he’s famous for: “fairly poor”, no romance, no violin music swelling in the background. Then comes the misbehavior: most of his money doesn’t go to rent, savings, or respectability, but to wine and classical music. It’s funny because it’s irresponsible, and it’s sharper because he says it without apology. The joke is also a test: if you’re the kind of reader who hears “classical music” and expects refinement, he immediately drags it back into the bar.

The subtext is that taste can be both genuine and weaponized. Bukowski loved high art, but he refuses to approach it on culture’s terms. “Mix the two together” isn’t just a lifestyle detail; it’s an aesthetic method. Wine lowers the guard, classical music raises the ceiling. One is escape, the other is structure. Put them in the same room and you get the Bukowski stance: dignity without piety, pleasure without pretending it’s self-improvement.

Context matters: a poet branded as a chronicler of skid-row realism admitting, almost offhandedly, to feeding himself Bach and Beethoven. It scrambles the tidy hierarchy that says the poor get beer and the educated get symphonies. Bukowski’s intent isn’t to ennoble himself; it’s to insist that beauty is not a reward for good behavior. It’s contraband, and he’s smug about smuggling it.