I've had this quote stuck on my refrigerator for quite a while now. It's a good thing to be forced to look at it on a regular basis.
"Some writers tend to write what has pleased their readers in the past. They hear accolades and believe them. There is only one final judge of writing and that is the writer. When he's swayed by the critics, the editors, the publishers, the readers, then he's finished. And, of course, when he's swayed with his fame and his fortune, you can float him down the river with the turds."
Replace writer, with artist, musician or whatever and it works for all creative fields.
The above quote is from the book "The Captain Is Out to Lunch and the Sailors Have Taken Over the Ship" which are excerpts from his journal. It was also used in the very good film "Factotum."
3 comments:
My favorite American writer of all time. So much have him has stuck with me, entwined in my own being. It sounds corny as hell, but it's true.
Factotum was pretty good, but I thought Barfly was 100 times better. I keep waiting for that DVD reissue. I found a bootleg once, bought it and turns out it's subtitled in Greek, haha.
"Crazy Love" (1987) and "Tales of Ordinary Madness" (1982) are good Bukowski movies as well.
Crap! Never even heard of those two. Netflix, here I come.
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