According to Christopher Hitchens, "The reflections of successful writers on other writers, can be astonishingly banal." While probably true, this does not apply to southern California's Charles Bukowski. Before he died in 1994 at 73, Bukowski, the author of thousands of poems, hundreds of short stories, and six novels, had plenty to say about the writer and his craft. His anti-social personality and noir attitude about life is reflected in some of the following quotes. Nice guy or not, Bukowski was interesting, and he could write. A few of his writing related quotes:
Writing is a sick habit to break.
I can write more truly of myself than of anybody that I know. It's a great source of material.
I liked [Ernest] Hemingway for clarity, I loved it, yet at the same time I didn't like the literary feel of it, there was an upper snobbishness attached. When you come in from the factory with your hands and your body and your mind ripped, hours and days stolen from you, you can become very aware of a fake line, a fake thought, of a literary game.
Why do poets consider themselves more elevated than the garbage man, the short story writer and the novelist?
The job of a writer is to write, all else is nonsense that weakens mind, gut, ability and the natural state of being.
Poetry? Well, it's not much, is it? A lot of posing and prancing and fakery, wordplay for its own sake.
I am not so worried about whether I am writing any good or not, I know I write a valley of bad stuff. But what gets me is that nobody is coming on that I can believe in or look up to. It's hell not to have a hero.
I have to write a lot of poems to keep from going crazy; I can't help it. I often write ten to twelve poems a day and then top the whole thing off with a short story.
You know, I've tried the starving writer bit. I write better with a few bucks in my pocket.
I have to drink and gamble [horses] to get away from this typewriter. Not that I don't love this old machine when it's working right. But knowing when to go to it and knowing to stay away from it, that's the trick.
Starvation and obscurity are not necessarily signs of genius.
If there is anything good about my writing it is the roughness, the quality of not being literary.
There is hardly such a thing as a modest writer. Especially a modest bad writer.
Writing is a sick habit to break.
I can write more truly of myself than of anybody that I know. It's a great source of material.
I liked [Ernest] Hemingway for clarity, I loved it, yet at the same time I didn't like the literary feel of it, there was an upper snobbishness attached. When you come in from the factory with your hands and your body and your mind ripped, hours and days stolen from you, you can become very aware of a fake line, a fake thought, of a literary game.
Why do poets consider themselves more elevated than the garbage man, the short story writer and the novelist?
The job of a writer is to write, all else is nonsense that weakens mind, gut, ability and the natural state of being.
Poetry? Well, it's not much, is it? A lot of posing and prancing and fakery, wordplay for its own sake.
I am not so worried about whether I am writing any good or not, I know I write a valley of bad stuff. But what gets me is that nobody is coming on that I can believe in or look up to. It's hell not to have a hero.
I have to write a lot of poems to keep from going crazy; I can't help it. I often write ten to twelve poems a day and then top the whole thing off with a short story.
You know, I've tried the starving writer bit. I write better with a few bucks in my pocket.
I have to drink and gamble [horses] to get away from this typewriter. Not that I don't love this old machine when it's working right. But knowing when to go to it and knowing to stay away from it, that's the trick.
Starvation and obscurity are not necessarily signs of genius.
If there is anything good about my writing it is the roughness, the quality of not being literary.
There is hardly such a thing as a modest writer. Especially a modest bad writer.
It has always been the popular concept for the writer to starve, go mad, suffer, suicide. I think it's time for the editors and publishers to starve, suffer, go made and suicide.
Yes, I drink when I write fiction. Why not? I like things to be entertaining. If I feel entertained at this machine maybe somebody else will feel that way too.
Thanks!
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