Never smoke with any starter fuel because the meat will taste like gas. Start your charcoal with dried twigs from your yard, paper grocrey bag, or newspaper. Put it under the charcoal like starting a fire in your fireplace. I don't even use man made charcoal. I use lump charcoal.
Lump charcoal is char-wood, so it's all natural.
Once you try it you'll never use anything else. It burns allot hotter than bricks and it last longer too. I use lump charcaol for grilling too. I don't know where your from, but Walmart sells it, and Kmart has it too. It's in the Martha Stewart grill section of Kmart.