NITCH

Photo of Charles Bukowski

Charles Bukowski // "I get many phonecalls now. They are all alike. 'Are you Charles Bukowski, the writer?' 'Yes,' I tell them. And they tell me that they understand my writing, and some of them are writers or want to be writers and they have dull and horrible jobs and they can't face the room, the apartment, the walls that night...they want somebody to talk to, and they can't believe that I can't help them, that I don't know the words. They can't believe that often now I double up in my room, grab my gut and say 'Jesus Jesus Jesus, not again!' They can't believe that the loveless people, the streets, the loneliness, the walls are mine too. And when I hang up the phone they think I have held back my secret. I don't write out of knowledge. When the phone rings, I too would like to hear words that might ease some of this. That's why my number's listed."