I think that over-ambition kills. I think that trying to be a writer kills. Writing simply has to be a sickness, a drug. It doesn't have to be, it just is. When one thing or another cures your sickness, that's it. And, of course, there are no guidelines.
I've been lucky. For decades now I haven't had to force myself to write anything in any particular way. If you slant your writing it means you want to make money, you want to get famous, you want go get published for the sake of getting published. I think that only works for a while. The gods are watching us. And they extract their toll. Without fail.
Charles Bukowski in Charles Bukowski: Selected Letters 1987-1994, edited by Seamus Cooney, 2004
I've been lucky. For decades now I haven't had to force myself to write anything in any particular way. If you slant your writing it means you want to make money, you want to get famous, you want go get published for the sake of getting published. I think that only works for a while. The gods are watching us. And they extract their toll. Without fail.
Charles Bukowski in Charles Bukowski: Selected Letters 1987-1994, edited by Seamus Cooney, 2004
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