Encore Love Of Drinking Channel?

Factotum showed up on the Encore Love channel (huh?) Friday night and I caught the last half. I rented this a year or two ago and dug it. Matt Dillon, Lili Taylor, and Marisa Tomei all have solid performances. There ain't much for plot, but between appreciating Dillon (both as actor and reading Bukowski passages as narration) and looking for Twin Cities bars (it was filmed here) it made for good viewing. The movie ends with Dillon reading Bukowski on being a writer:

It could mean derision. It could mean mockery, isolation. Isolation is the gift. All the others are a test of your endurance. Of how much you really want to do it. And you'll do it, despite rejection in the worst odds. And it will be better than anything else you can imagine. If you're going to try, go all the way. There is no other feeling like that. You will be alone with the gods. And the nights will flame with fire. You will ride life straight to perfect laughter. It's the only good fight there is.

But as I looked up those words last night, it dawned on me: Was Bukowski really writing about drinking?