Ray Bradbury print by Ryan Sheffield
Whilst sorting through some books the other evening, I came across and started reading We’ll Always Have Paris by Ray Bradbury. That was me gone for the night; curled up amongst packing boxes getting lost in words.
Ray Bradbury is one of my all time favourite authors (I named my first website Seventeen and Insane after a quote from Farhenheit 451, I’m that much of a geek). Although I’m not a massive sci-fi fan – and he by no means just writes sci-fi – he has a rare talent (akin only to Kurt Vonnegut, in my opinion) for making science fiction and the fantastical seem human and real.
The way he talks about writing and why he writes is so infectious, I think that it can be applied to any art – and life in general – so I thought I’d share some inspiration here…
“Writing stories is like breathing for me. I watch: I get an idea, fall in love with it, and try not to think too much about it. I then write: I let the story pour forth onto the paper as soon as possible”
“Don’t think. Thinking is the enemy of creativity. It’s self-conscious, and anything self-conscious is lousy. You can’t try to do things. You simply must do things.”
“Every morning I jump out of bed and step on a landmine. The landmine is me. After the explosion, I spent the rest of the day putting the pieces together.”
“And what, you ask, does writing teach us? First and foremost, it reminds us that we are alive and that it is a gift and a privilege, not a right.”
“That’s the great secret of creativity. You treat ideas like cats: you make them follow you.”
“If you don’t like what you’re doing, then don’t do it.”
“You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you.”
“We have our Arts so we won’t die of Truth.”
Apart from the first quote, which is from We’ll Always Have Paris, the rest are from Zen in the Art of Writing, which anyone who writes should read.
Do you have a favourite author who inspires you?
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