Don't Try
Wait, what?
The poet who got his break around 50
Decades of rejection, then this happened
Quick check · tap an answer to continue
Lesson notes
Key points
- Charles Bukowski wrote for decades while working dull jobs, and editors kept rejecting him again and again.
- Around age 50, a small publisher finally backed him, and his gravestone later read simply: Don't try.
Takeaway: Bukowski won by being honest about failure, not by forcing positivity.
Quick check: What two words are on Bukowski's gravestone?
- Never give up
- I did it my way
- Don't try
His gravestone reads 'Don't try', the line Manson opens the book with.
RejectionDon't try
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