The next day I sat in the hall in my green tin chair, waiting to be called. Across from me sat a man who had something wrong with his nose. It was very red and very raw and very fat and...

The subs themselves made Jonstone possible by obeying his impossible orders. I couldn’t see how a man of such obvious cruelty could be allowed to have his position. The regulars didn’t ...

there waas a rock-and-mud slide on the Pacific Coast Highway and we had… detour and they directed us up into the… and traffic was slow and it was hot, and… we were lost.

don’t worry about rejections, pard, I’ve been rejected before. sometimes you make a mistake, taking the wrong poem

he got knifed in broad daylight, came up… holding his hands over his gut, dripping… on the pavement. nobody waiting in line left their place… he made it to the Mission doorway, colla…

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...

Back in L.A., there was almost a week o… rang. It was the owner of a Manhattan B… “Chinaski, I want you to read a week fr… Rock groups played there. It was a diff… “Chinaski,” Marty said, "you think you…

I went upstairs to 409, had a stiff scotch and water, took some money out of the top drawer, went down the steps, got in my car and drove to the racetrack. I got there in time for the f...

once we were young at this machine. . . drinking

I drank for the next week. I drank night and day and wrote 25 or 30 mournful poems about lost love. It was Friday night when the phone rang. It was Mercedes. “I got married,” she said, ...

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...

at the window I watch a man with a power mower the sounds of his doing race like flies and bees