Becca,

Yeah, it is pretty foreboding - but I think the last line is the pay-off.

'This could mean losing girlfriends, wives, relatives and maybe even your mind. It could mean not eating for three or four days' because his wife's gone and left him for making such a fuss!!!
Becca.

I think most of Buk's female partners ran away screaming - but not because of his typing!

They got tired of cooking for him.

Blimey the Bukowski reminds of an anecdote of a conversation between Olivier and Dustin Hoffman during filming of Marathon Man. Hoffman allegedly stayed up for four days and nights without eating or washing to get into the mindset and Olivier sat down beside him and said, 'Try acting, my dear. It's much easier.'

I love all anti-Art-as-penance quotes. Even when we're banging our heads against the wall in a frozen room, having earned 99p all year, writing's more fun than working. That's why we do it.