I ran across this online and I love it. I know there are a lot of misattributions on the web but if this isn't Charles Bukowski, I'll eat my hat.

“I've never been lonely. I've been in a room -- I've felt suicidal. I've been depressed. I've felt awful -- awful beyond all -- but I never felt that one other person could enter that room and cure what was bothering me...or that any number of people could enter that room. In other words, loneliness is something I've never been bothered with because I've always had this terrible itch for solitude. It's being at a party, or at a stadium full of people cheering for something, that I might feel loneliness. I'll quote Ibsen, "The strongest men are the most alone." I've never thought, "Well, some beautiful blonde will come in here and give me a fuck-job, rub my balls, and I'll feel good." No, that won't help. You know the typical crowd, "Wow, it's Friday night, what are you going to do? Just sit there?" Well, yeah. Because there's nothing out there. It's stupidity. Stupid people mingling with stupid people. Let them stupidify themselves. I've never been bothered with the need to rush out into the night. I hid in bars, because I didn't want to hide in factories. That's all. Sorry for all the millions, but I've never been lonely. I like myself. I'm the best form of entertainment I have. Let's drink more wine!”

It's from a 7 page collection of Bukowski quotes published by Sean Penn after interviewing Charles Bukowski, titled "Tough Guys Write Poetry", which appeared in the September 1987 edition of Interview magazine.





The article is reprinted in its entirety here:
https://bukowski.net/poems/int2.php

16 minutes. I am constantly amazed by the folks on this forum.

Rogue is smart he reads books.

Usually, a person would have to go through the hundreds of things Bukowski got published over a 40-plus year span to find out if it is indeed his. We have SigForum!

Even if this source hadn't been found, there were parts of his life that would certainly have been reflected in the quote. For example, he was in and out of employment dozens of times, preferring to live (and get drunk on a regular basis) in the squalor or near-squalor of the streets of Los Angeles rather than work an hourly-wage job. So the sentence, "I hid in bars, because I didn't want to hide in factories." at least sounds like it could have come from Bukowski.

I'm not really into mid-20th century writing (and have only read a few pieces from Bukowski), but one of my friends who is once gave me this description of him: He has the personal weirdness of Kurt Vonnegut, the interest in blue-collar subject matter of Studs Terkel, and the complete opposite social standing of Tom Wolfe but with all of the writing talent, and lives inside a bottle of really bad 90 proof whiskey.

Thanks, Rogue. Bukowski's a prophet in my book.