Factotum

by Charles Bukowski

That’s when I first learned that it wasn’t enough to just do your job, you had to have an interest in it, even a passion for it.

I was a man who thrived on solitude; without it I was like another man without food or water. Each day without solitude weakened me. I took no pride in my solitude; but I was dependent on it.

I mumbled something about O. Henry and left.

Those in control always preferred to overwork a few men continually, instead of hiring more people so everyone might work less. You gave the boss eight hours, and he always asked for more. He never sent you home after six hours, for example. You might have time to think.

Were they that much more clever than I? The only difference was money, and the desire to accumulate it.

A man’s soul was rooted in his stomach. A man could write much better after eating a porterhouse steak and drinking a pint of whiskey than he could ever write after eating a nickel candy bar.

Once you realized that everything was a hoax you got wise and began to bleed and burn your fellow man. I’d build an empire upon the broken bodies and lives of helpless men, women, and children—I’d shove it to them all the way. I’d show them!

The thought of sitting in front of a man behind a desk and telling him that I wanted a job, that I was qualified for a job, was too much for me. Frankly, I was horrified by life, at what a man had to do simply in order to eat, sleep, and keep himself clothed. So I stayed in bed and drank. When you drank the world was still out there, but for the moment it didn’t have you by the throat.

“I like you,” said Wilbur, “you look like you’ve been around, you look like you’ve got class. Most people don’t have class. You’ve got class.” “I don’t know anything about class,” I said, “but I’ve been around.”

But we kept the wine bottles lined up bravely, made love, fought, and waited.

“…my time so that you can live in your big house on the hill and have all the things that go with it. If anybody has lost anything on this deal, on this arrangement…I’ve been the loser. Do you understand?”

It was true that I didn’t have much ambition, but there ought to be a place for people without ambition, I mean a better place than the one usually reserved.

Even the most horrible human being on earth deserves to wipe his ass.

Coming toward me was another bum. “Got a smoke, buddy?” he asked. “Yeah.” I took out two, gave him one, took one myself. I lit him up, then I lit myself up. He moved east and I moved west.