leonacqualls.com

how to be a great writer

admin — Wed, 16 May 2012 15:05:39 +0000

you’ve got to fuck a great many women
beautiful women
and write a few decent love poems.
and don’t worry about age
and/or freshly-arrived talents.

just drink more beer
more and more beer

and attend the racetrack at least once a

week

and win
if possible

learning to win is hard -
any slob can be a good loser.

and don’t forget your Brahms
and your Bach and your
beer.

don’t overexercise.

sleep until noon.

avoid credit cards
or paying for anything on
time.

remember that there isn’t a piece of ass
in this world worth over $50
(in 1977).

and if you have the ability to love
love yourself first
but always be aware of the possibility of
total defeat
whether the reason for that defeat
seems right or wrong—

an early taste of death is not necessarily
a bad thing.

stay out of churches and bars and museums,
and like the spider be
patient—
time is everybody’s cross,
plus
exile
defeat
treachery

all that dross.

stay with the beer.

beer is continuous blood.

a continuous lover.

get a large typewriter
and as the footsteps go up and down
outside your window

hit that thing
hit it hard

make it a heavyweight fight

make it the bull when he first charges in

and remember the old dogs
who fought so well:
Hemingway, Celine, Dostoevsky, Hamsun.

If you think they didn’t go crazy
in tiny rooms
just like you’re doing now

without women
without food
without hope

then you’re not ready.

drink more beer.
there’s time.
and if there’s not
that’s all right
too.

- Charles Bukowski, Love is a dog from Hell

Website updated 16 May 2012

There’s nothing to stop a man from writing

admin — Mon, 14 May 2012 02:38:09 +0000

“There’s nothing to stop a man from writing unless that man
stops himself. If a man truly desires to write, then he will.
Rejection and ridicule will only strengthen him. And the longer
he is held back the stronger he will become, like a mass of rising
water against a dam. There is no losing in writing, it will make your toes laugh
as you sleep, it will make you stride like a tiger, it will fire
the eye and put you face to face with death. You will die a fighter,
you will be honored in Hell. The luck of the word. Go with it, send it.” – Charles Bukowski, The Captain is Out to Lunch and the Sailors Have Taken Over the Ship

Website updated 14 May 2012

Moments

admin — Sun, 13 May 2012 11:38:57 +0000

“We have in our lives only a few moments. A moment of joy and wonder with another. Some might say beauty or transcendence. Or all those things. Then you reach an age [...] and you realize that moment, or, if you are very lucky, a handful of those moments, was your life. That those moments are all, and that they are everything. And yet we persist in thinking that such moments will only have worth if we can make them go on forever. We should live for moments, yet we are so fraught with pursuing everything else, with the future, with the anchors that pull us down, so busy that we sometimes don’t even see the moments for what they are.” – Richard Flanagan, Wanting

Website updated 13 May 2012

Drinking

admin — Tue, 08 May 2012 03:04:01 +0000

“That’s the problem with drinking, I thought, as I poured myself a drink. If something bad happens you drink in an attempt to forget; if something good happens you drink in order to celebrate; and if nothing happens you drink to make something happen.” – Charles Bukowski, Women

Website updated 8 May 2012

Writing: Dealing with rejection letters

admin — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 11:59:10 +0000

The Wanderer – Part 2

admin — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 07:18:59 +0000

So we follow our wandering paths, and the very darkness acts as our guide and our doubts serve to reassure us. – Jean-Pierre de Caussade

Website updated 9 April 2012

The Wanderer – Part 1

admin — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 07:13:46 +0000

He went, ever on the move, with the slow, shuffling step of wandering beggars who are nowhere at home. – Stijn Streuvels

Website updated 9 April 2012

Reflecting…

admin — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 09:34:39 +0000

The function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days trying to prolong them. I shall use my time. – Jack London

Website updated 11 March 2012

Tsuen Wan, Hong Kong, 2011

admin — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 00:30:48 +0000

I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. – Jack London

Website updated 10 March 2012

The Road Ahead

admin — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 15:44:07 +0000

To know the road ahead, ask those coming back. – Chinese Proverb

Website updated 9 March 2012