A man needed somebody. There wasn't anybody around, so you had to make up somebody, make him up to be like a man should be. It wasn't make-believe or cheating. The other way was make-believe and cheating: living your life without a man like him around.

This play was a one-off performance. I've always had the geographical and spiritual feeling of being here. He was then 49 years old.

In 1986 Time called Bukowski a "laureate of American lowlife". His writing was influenced by the social cultural and economic ambience of his home city of Los Angeles. [is that] he combines the confessional poet's promise of intimacy with the larger-than-life aplomb of a pulp-fiction hero.