I got a letter in the mail. It was addressed from Hollywood. Dear Chinaski: I’ve just read almost all your books. I work as a typist in a place on Cherokee Ave. I’ve hung your picture i...

I hear them outside: “does he always type this late?” “no, it’s very unusual.” “he shouldn’t type this

Vallejo writing about loneliness while starving to death; Van Gogh’s ear rejected by a whore;

Dee Dee had a place in the Hollywood Hills. Dee Dee shared the place with a friend, another lady executive, Bianca. Bianca took the top floor and Dee Dee the bottom. I rang the bell. It...

no we can’t we can’t win it I’ve decided we can’t win it just for a while we thought we cou… but that was just for a while

here comes the fishhead singing here comes the baked potato in dra… here comes nothing to do all day l… here comes another night of no sle… here comes the phone ringing the w…

at one stage in my life I met a man who claimed to have visited Pound at St. Elizabeths. then I met a woman who not only claimed to have visited

On the elevator up, I was the only white man there. It seemed strange. They talked about the riots, not looking at me. “Jesus,” said a coal black guy, "it’s really something. These guys...

red hair real she whirled it and she asked “is my ass still on?”

The first three or four days at Mears-Starbuck were identical. In fact, similarity was a very dependable thing at Mears-Starbuck. The caste system was an accepted fact. There wasn’t a s...

I had boils the size of tomatoes all over me they stuck a drill into me down at the county hospital, and

they don’t make it the beautiful die in flame— suicide pills, rat poison, rope, w… ever... they rip their arms off,

I was the last one off the plane and there was Joanna Dover. “Joanna, let’s have a Bloody Mary while we wait for my baggage. Oh hell, I don’t have any baggage. But let’s have a Bloody M...