If you’re going to try, go all the way.

Otherwise, don’t even start.

If you’re going to try, go all the way.

This could mean losing girlfriends, wives, relatives, jobs and maybe even your mind.

It could mean not eating for three or four days.

It could mean freezing on a park bench.

It could mean jail.

It could mean derision, mockery, isolation.

Isolation is the gift.

All the others are a test of your endurance, of how much you really want to do it.

And, you’ll do it, despite rejection and the worst odds.

And it will be better than anything else you can imagine.

If you’re going to try, go all the way.

There is no other feeling like that.

Bukowski uses his own life as the basis for his ‘Notes of a Dirty Old Man’, and characteristically leaves nothing out.

The different stories range from hooking up with the wife of a stranger who invites him over for dinner to admire his work.

Bukowski goes through life and each event without caring about the consequences of his actions. He is almost always alone aside from the occasional prostitute that he invites over.

A few times, generous people who admire his writings will allow him to stay with them rent free, though he does not understand why people enjoy his writings so much.

As soon as he starts to get too close to these families or hosts he will leave without notice and go on to find a new place to stay.

However, he does mention that he does not want readers to feel sorry for him, which is why he includes crude comedy along with each story.

He always has some type of alcohol with him that allows him to be as carefree as he is.

Whether he is drinking while writing his stories and poetry, or showing up to work and meetings already drunk, every story incorporates his vigorous drinking habits.

Bukowski died of leukemia on March 9, 1994, in Los Angeles, aged 73, shortly after completing his last novel, Pulp. The funeral rites, orchestrated by his widow, were conducted by Buddhist monks.

His gravestone reads: ‘Don’t Try’, a phrase which Bukowski uses in one of his poems, advising aspiring writers and poets about inspiration and creativity.

Bukowski was an atheist. His work was subject to controversy throughout his career.

He was apolitical and selfish, never interested in the welfare of others, never voted and did not care about the civil rights movement.

His sexism in poetry, at least in part, translated into his life.