so you want to be a writer?

if it doesn’t come bursting out of you
in spite of everything,
don’t do it.
unless it comes unasked out of your
heart and your mind and your mouth
and your gut,
don’t do it.
if you have to sit for hours
staring at your computer screen
or hunched over your
typewriter
searching for words,
don’t do it.
if you’re doing it for money or
fame,
don’t do it.
if you’re doing it because you want
women in your bed,
don’t do it.
if you have to sit there and
rewrite it again and again,
don’t do it.
if it’s hard work just thinking about doing it,
don’t do it.
if you’re trying to write like somebody
else,
forget about it.


if you have to wait for it to roar out of
you,
then wait patiently.
if it never does roar out of you,
do something else.

if you first have to read it to your wife
or your girlfriend or your boyfriend
or your parents or to anybody at all,
you’re not ready.

don’t be like so many writers,
don’t be like so many thousands of
people who call themselves writers,
don’t be dull and boring and
pretentious, don’t be consumed with self-
love.
the libraries of the world have
yawned themselves to
sleep
over your kind.
don’t add to that.
don’t do it.
unless it comes out of
your soul like a rocket,
unless being still would
drive you to madness or
suicide or murder,
don’t do it.
unless the sun inside you is
burning your gut,
don’t do it.

when it is truly time,
and if you have been chosen,
it will do it by
itself and it will keep on doing it
until you die or it dies in you.

there is no other way.

and there never was.

-Charles Bukowski

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  1. evelivesintheory reblogged this from girlperson
  2. idealisticfuture reblogged this from girlperson and added:
    well said, Bukowski.
  3. thedaysarenotfullenough reblogged this from attackattack
  4. hapnadsvakande reblogged this from teatime-with-nikki
  5. undergroundelephants reblogged this from davepress
  6. teatime-with-nikki reblogged this from semicolonlove
  7. tikayiyay reblogged this from attackattack
  8. itsonemoremile reblogged this from girlperson
  9. radeladle reblogged this from nedhepburn
  10. imminentsurvival reblogged this from charlesbukowski
  11. awaytoday reblogged this from nedhepburn and added:
    it’s what makes me stay with journalism
  12. until reblogged this from attackattack
  13. precis reblogged this from nedhepburn and added:
    if it doesn’t come bursting out of you in spite of everything, don’t do it. unless it comes unasked out of your heart...
  14. sierraforpeace reblogged this from nedhepburn
  15. thirstforthoughts reblogged this from girlperson and added:
    It’s a beautiful feeling...can’t love anything else, there’s something waiting for
  16. thegoodlife reblogged this from nedhepburn
  17. attackattack reblogged this from nedhepburn