One and Only

Do you have ideal conditions under which you write? Do you write most days?
The ideal conditions are between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m. Bottle of wine, smokes, radio on to classical music. I write 2 or 3 nights a week. It's the best show in town.

It's well known that you like classical music, who is your favourite, any particular reasons? Sibelius. The long deep tonality. And a passion that knocks your lights out.

Beat Scene/Transit Magazine interview
Interview by Kevin Ring

(“The life of a writer is unbearable … starving writers live worse than skid row bums”) and the harsh desperation of life on the margins of Los Angeles.

Bukowski believed that pride “has no right in things upright and mechanical”, that primal feeling trumped intellect in any race of the body or mind, and that a thousand scarlet sunsets bleeding into the Pacific Ocean were no match for a woman’s beauty. But beauty, Bukowski instructs, “would not be beautiful without flaws.”

• Stonecloud #1 - 1972

• Stonecloud #1 - 1972 

INTERVIEW

STONECLOUD: Did you ever meet anybody interesting at the race track?

BUKOWSKI: Hardly. Men, women or otherwise. They're kind of drab creatures. Likeecker players or bowlers or people who go to wrestling matches. I got a saying, "people chose to go to the race track are the lowest of the breed." And Linda looks up and says, "What are we doing here?" I say "Hell, I don't know."

STONECLOUD: Do you find that there are any similarities between horses and women?

BUKOWSKI: Yeah. You can ride 'em, but you don't know who's gonna be riding 'em the next race. They switch around on their jockeys. And then you can't bet on them, they change form, and they're unpredictable. Only thing is, horses sometimes break their legs; women break men.