Those who are best at poetry are those

Those who are best at poetry are those who have to write it and will continue to write it no matter the result. The act of writing the word down is the act of miracle, the saving grace, the luck, the music, the going-on. It clears the space, it saves you and some other people. If fame somehow comes through all this, you must ignore it, you must continue to write as if the next line were your first line.

And although we must ignore praise, there are times when we might allow ourselves to feel good for just a bit. I received a letter from a prisoner in a jail in Australia who wrote me, 'Your books are the only books that pass from cell to cell.'

- Charles Bukowski