Bukowski Worked at the Post Office

"There will always be something to ruin our lives- it all depends on what or which finds us first. We are always ripe and ready to be taken."          -Charles Bukowski

The writer Charles Bukowski worked at the post office as a letter filing clerk for more than a decade. Before that, he worked in a pickle factory. In 1969 Bukowski accepted an offer from Black Sparrow Press publisher John Martin and quit his post office job to dedicate himself to full-time writing. He was then 49 years old. As he explained in a letter at the time, "I have one of two choices – stay in the post office and go crazy ... or stay out here and play at writer and starve. I have decided to starve."

I remember reading his book Factotum and thinking, this guy is a master at describing the banality, inanity, and desperation found in so many modern workplaces.

He also said "If you're losing your soul and you know it, then you've still got a soul left to lose."