Selected excerpts from Charles Bukowski’s “Roll the Dice”

if you’re going to try, go all the

way.

otherwise, don’t even start.

…

go all the way.

it could mean not eating for 3 or 4 days.

it could mean freezing on a

park bench.

it could mean jail,

it could mean derision,

mockery,

isolation.

isolation is the gift,

all the others are a test of your

endurance, of

how much you really want to

do it.

and you’ll do it

despite rejection and the worst odds

and it will be better than

anything else

you can imagine.

…

if you’re going to try,

go all the way.

there is no other feeling like

that.

you will be alone with the gods

and the nights will flame with

fire.

— Charles Bukowski, You Get So Alone at Times That It Just Makes Sense (1986)