SOURCE: "Paying for Horses," in London Magazine, Vol. 14, No. 5, December, 1974, pp. 35–54.

In the conversation below, Bukowski discusses his literary influences, the critical response to his work, and the "Bukowski image."

[Wennersten]: What were your parents and your childhood like? [Bukowski]: Oh, God. Well, my parents were of German extraction. My mother was born there; and my father's people were German, although he came out of Pasadena. My father liked to whip me with a razor strop. My mother backed him. A sad story. Very good discipline all the way through, but very little love going either direction. Good training for the world, though, they made me ready. Today, watching other children, I'd say one thing they taught me was not to weep too much when something goes wrong. In other words, they hardened me to what I was going to go through: the bum, the road, all the...