Charles Bukowski via Brain Pickings,
In a letter to a friend that encouraged him to pursue his art, “You know my old saying,”
“Slavery was never abolished, it was only extended to include all the colors.”
IMHO, it is not just artists that this applies to. It applies to everyone who would rather work for themselves rather than toil for someone else for a wage that erodes in one form or another over time. It is certainly right for many, but I truly believe that a lot more people are employed than should be. A size-able chunk of the employed workforce owe it to themselves to become self-employed and do greater (or just happier) things to put food on the table.
In another letter via Jay Dougherty, Bukowski writes,
“I have one of two choices–stay in the postoffice and go crazy…or stay out here and play at writer and starve. I have decided to starve.”
That was Bukowski at age 49. It took him a long time to stop working for someone else and start doing what he was meant to do. It is never too late.
