Bukowski on "Barfly"
This is probably old news for most of you, but the quotes may be of interest to those who've never seen them before, from a publicity flyer upon the release of the film. Apologies if it's been posted under a previous thread. Best wishes to all....PT
Bukowski on the Movie "Barfly"
"Most writer's lives are more interesting than what they write. Mine is both. They meet on an equal plane."
"Barbet [Schroeder] just showed up one day. Said he wanted to make a film about my life. So I typed it out. I started writing dirty stories and I end up writing a fucking screenplay. I just wrote it and said it was in the hands of God, they'll fuck it up. Fortunately, because of Barbet Schroeder's directing... they got a great cast and it worked."
"I was hiding out. I didn't know what else to do. This bar back east was a lively bar. It wasn't a common bar. There were characters in there. There was a feeling. There was an ugliness, there was dullness and stupidity. But there was also a gleeful high pitch you could feel there. Else I wouldn't have stayed.
"I did about three years there, left, came back, did another three years. Then I came back to L.A. and worked Alvarado Street, the bars up and down there. Met the ladies--if you want to call them that."
On the effects of fame on writers, Bukowski believes that, "if you're old enough, you have a better chance to overcome what they put on you. If you're a genius at 22 and the babes come around, the drinks ... How old was Dylan Thomas when he died, 34? It can come too soon. It can never come too late, I guess. I think I'm safe."
"I get letters from women who want to show their naked bodies. 'I'm 19 years old and I want to be your secretary. I'll keep your house and I won't bother you at all. I just want to be around.' I get some strange letters. I trash them."
"As Ezra said, 'Do your W-O-R-K.' That's where the vigor comes from, the creative fucking process. Puts dance in the bones. Like I said, if I don't write for a week, I get sick. I can't walk, I get dizzy, I lay in bed, I puke. Get up in the morning and gag. I've got to type. If you chopped my hands off, I'd type with my feet. So I've never written for money; I've written just because of an imbecilic urge."
"I waited a long, long while. At the age of 50, I was still in the post office, stacking letters. I was still working, I was not a writer. I decided to quit and become a writer. When I went to resign, the lady in the post office clucked her tongue at me. I always remember that. It was my last day on the job. One of the clerks said, 'I don't know if he's going to make it, but the old man has a lot of guts.
"I'm 66 now. That was in 1970. 1 guess I got lucky late.
"[Raises toast] Here's to my father, who made me the way I am. He beat the shit out of me. After my father, everything was easy."
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