Charles Bukowski // "Ben phoned and said, 'There’s a rumor going around that you’re dead.' ...'Well,' I said, 'Maybe the dead can’t tell, maybe I’m dead...' 5 years ago somebody started it: 'Bukowski’s dead.' Now it’s beginning again. They want me dead very much. I seem to be very much on the mind of the death-wishers. It’s irritating to some that a man nearing sixty continues to write. It should give them some hope instead of rancor. I’ll die, my friends, I have no doubt of that. But I think that the history of our streets would have less ugly names if we could celebrate men’s lives also.'"