so you want to be a writer?
Charles Bukowski, 1920 - 1994
if it doesnât come bursting out of you
unless it comes unasked out of your
heart and your mind and your mouth
if you have to sit for hours
staring at your computer screen
if youâre doing it for money or
if youâre doing it because you want
if you have to sit there and
rewrite it again and again,
if itâs hard work just thinking about doing it,
if youâre trying to write like somebody
if you have to wait for it to roar out of
if it never does roar out of you,
if you first have to read it to your wife
or your girlfriend or your boyfriend
or your parents or to anybody at all,
donât be like so many writers,
donât be like so many thousands of
people who call themselves writers,
donât be dull and boring and
pretentious, donât be consumed with self-
the libraries of the world have
yawned themselves to sleep
unless the sun inside you is
and if you have been chosen,
itself and it will keep on doing it
until you die or it dies in you.