Saw this on a quote investigator website
Kinky Friedman was profiled by the paper because he had branched out into a new field. Friedman had recently authored his first mystery novel, and while discussing his colorful career he employed the adage. Interestingly, the expression contained the word “like” instead of “love”. Boldface has been added to excerpts:
“I did it on my own, without AA or Jesus; but, then, I think we all have to find the Jesus of our choosing. I’ve always said:
Find what you like, and let it kill you.“
The saying with the word “love” has been credited to Charles Bukowski in recent years, but
QI has located no substantive evidence to support this ascription.
Here are additional selected citations in chronological order.
In 1991 a collection of interviews titled “Songwriters On Songwriting” was published, and one of the interviewees was the composer Van Dyke Parks who was a friend of Kinky Friedman. Parks reported that Friedman used a version of the jocular injunction with the word “like”:
Interviewer: So songwriting for you is a daily activity?
Van Dyke Parks: There are months that go by that I don’t write songs. I go out and take care of the garden; I take care of the realities. I get the house reroofed and painted and stuff. Pick the kid up from school—both kids, if I’m lucky. And in the meantime I stay plastered to the news.
Interviewer: So to connect with those realities beyond everyday life you stay aware of this reality.
Van Dyke Parks: Yes. I find something that moves me. Kinky Friedman said, “Find what you like and let it kill you.”[Laughs]