Ray Bradbury on Life, Writing and Love
Bradbury’s vibrant personality tells us of how he fell in love with literature for the first time and how books can teach us about love.
We all know Ray Bradbury. And if we don’t, we all should. Beyond his books —which are always eloquent references to the most important human subjects— there is this vibrant character that infects the world with good humor. Bradbury reinvigorates all the common, carpe diem places one hears about all the time. His advice is not a series of self-help suggestions, but imperatives to lead a fuller and healthier life. “The things you do must be the things you love, and the things you love must be the things you do,” he categorically states throughout his interviews.
If you’re going through one of those vague apathetic or disinterested moments, we recommend you watch this entire televised interview. His way of describing how he fell in love with books when he was a child can cure any symptom of everyday weariness. “When you go to a library”, he says, “it’s not the books that are waiting for you. Its people. All those people are waiting for you to read them and become them. If you read Charles Dickens, you become Charles Dickens.” Then, in the same way, if we read Bradbury, we are Ray Bradbury, and there must be few things more exciting than becoming him.
In another interview, Bradbury simply describes his creative process, and while at it he shares a detailed list with methods that we can easily imitate to make the most of our imagination:
The moment I have an idea I put it down on paper. When you go back to paper and read what you wrote you realize what you really think about something. […] If we act these tensions out we are constantly cleaning the river, as if it was an impurity in a river flowing down the mountain: when it’s travelled for 9 miles its pure. This is also the life of a man as it travels to the sea —our inevitable death, some day— purifies itself. It has to. Because if you do not purify it, these tensions remain inside and they turn against you… they destroy you.
Bradbury’s philosophy is so similar to Tao, Zen and children’s behavior that it has to be valuable. He encourages us to laugh when we think something is funny, to cry when we feel like it, to let our anger out when the moment calls for it.
A man who cannot laugh is a sick man. A man who cannot cry and free his tears is a sick man. A man who cannot be violent (through exercise, sports, painting, writing or acting) is a sick man.
Thus we have to laugh, cry and feel whatever the moment calls for, so that we our emotions don’t become fossils, and so that we do not crumble apart afterwards, like a pile of rocks.
“Everything we have in this world is our work”, Bradbury states. “We only belong when we do, we only have when we do, and we only love when we do. And if you wanted an interpretation of life and love, that’s as close as I’ll ever get”.
Related Articles
Pictorial spiritism (a woman's drawings guided by a spirit)
There are numerous examples in the history of self-taught artists which suggest an interrogation of that which we take for granted within the universe of art. Such was the case with figures like
Astounding fairytale illustrations from Japan
Fairy tales tribal stories— are more than childish tales. Such fictions, the characters of which inhabit our earliest memories, aren’t just literary works with an aesthetic and pleasant purpose. They
A cinematic poem and an ode to water: its rhythms, shapes and textures
Here lies One Whose Name was writ in Water. - John Keats Without water the equation of life, at least life as we know it, would be impossible. A growing hypothesis holds that water, including the
Watch beauty unfold through science in this "ode to a flower" (video)
The study of the microscopic is one of the richest, most aesthetic methods of understanding the world. Lucky is the scientist who, upon seeing something beautiful, is able to see all of the tiny
To invent those we love or to see them as they are? Love in two of the movies' favorite scenes
So much has been said already, of “love” that it’s difficult to add anything, much less something new. It’s possible, though, perhaps because even if you try to pass through the sieve of all our
This app allows you to find and preserve ancient typographies
Most people, even those who are far removed from the world of design, are familiar with some type of typography and its ability to transform any text, help out dyslexics or stretch an eight page paper
The secrets of the mind-body connection
For decades medical research has recognized the existence of the placebo effect — in which the assumption that a medication will help produces actual physical improvements. In addition to this, a
The sea as infinite laboratory
Much of our thinking on the shape of the world and the universe derives from the way scientists and artists have approached these topics over time. Our fascination with the mysteries of the
Sharing and collaborating - natural movements of the creative being
We might sometimes think that artistic or creative activity is, in essence, individualistic. The Genesis of Judeo-Christian tradition portrays a God whose decision to create the world is as vehement
John Malkovich becomes David Lynch (and other characters)
John Malkovich and David Lynch are, respectively, the actor and film director who’ve implicitly or explicitly addressed the issues of identity and its porous barriers through numerous projects. Now