Michael Chenchard’s Reviews > On Drinking > Status Update

“I just keep drinking the wine and
       smoking, and there’s nothing more magic or gentle than this, that’s
       why I tend to talk about it, I want to keep the luck going . . .”

Excerpt From
On Drinking
Charles Bukowski
This material may be protected by copyright.

“Perhaps, some day, somebody will explain to me why so much of the energy of the Miracle is contained in classical music? I doubt that this will ever be told to me. I will only be left to wonder. Why, why, why aren’t there more books with this power? What’s wrong with the writers? Why are there so few good ones?”

Excerpt From
On Drinking
Charles Bukowski
This material may be protected by copyright.

and it didn't even break is good

“it’s all been so beastly
       lovely,
       this mad river,
       this gouging
       plundering
       madness
       that I would wish upon
       nobody
       but myself,
       amen.”

Excerpt From
On Drinking
Charles Bukowski
This material may be protected by copyright.

“Question: If you do drink or use other drugs, is it at least partly to rid yourself of inhibitions and self-consciousness? Does it help to overcome the fear of exposing yourself? Do you think that there is a point of diminishing returns?
Bukowski: Only a jealous non-drinker would ask a question like that.”

Excerpt From
On Drinking
Charles Bukowski
This material may be protected by copyright.

“Question: Truman Capote said that once he began writing, “in fearful earnest, my mind zoomed all night every night, and I don’t think I really slept for several years. Not until I discovered that whisky could relax me.” Have you used drugs or alcohol to escape the grip of obsessive writing, or to relax from the effects of creation?
Bukowski: When I read Capote I need a drink to get that thin crap out of my mind.”

“It whirls the winds behind the gods. Besides, I drink when I don’t write but, in a sense, I think I am writing then. The mind spreads to gather new surfaces, small imprints.
”

Excerpt From
On Drinking
Charles Bukowski
This material may be protected by copyright.

Bukowski: Writers are mostly dissatisfied with life as life and with people as people, etc. Writing is an attempt to explain, escape and change the outrageous forces which make us more than unhappy. Drinking is a chemistry which also rearranges our horizons for us. It gives us two ways to live instead of one.”

“I am sick with writing. It is my drug. It is my woman, my wine, my god. My luck.”

Excerpt From
On Drinking
Charles Bukowski
This material may be protected by copyright.

“when I look at a bottle of
       beer it looks like bottled sunlight, and a bottle of wine, especially the dark red, it looks like the life-blood of the world.”

Excerpt From
On Drinking
Charles Bukowski
This material may be protected by copyright.