Every time you take a step, even when you don't want to. . . . When it hurts, when it means you rub chins with death, or even if it means dying, that's good. Anything that moves ahead, wins. No chess game was ever won by the player who sat for a lifetime thinking over his next move.
Interpretation
Taking action, even in difficult situations, leads to progress and success.
In this quote, Ray Bradbury emphasizes the importance of taking steps forward in life, regardless of the challenges and fears we may face. He suggests that progress is achieved through action, and that overthinking without taking risks will not lead to victory; instead, it is necessary to confront fears and uncertainties head-on to truly move forward.
In practice
In a motivational speech about overcoming adversity.
I've written about 2,000 short stories; I've only published 300 and I feel I'm still learning. Any man who keeps working is not a failure. He may not be a great writer, but if he applies the old fashioned virtues of hard, constant labor, he'll eventually make some kind of career for himself as a writer. Ray Bradbury, 1967 interview (Doing the Math - that means for every story he sold, he wrote six "un-publishable" ones. Keep typing!)
I never went to college, so I went to the library.
There must be something in books, something we can’t imagine, to make a woman stay in a burning house; there must be something there. You don’t stay for nothing.
I think the sun is a flower, That blooms for just one hour.
The first thing a writer should be is - excited. He should be a thing of fevers and enthusiasms. Without such vigor, he might as well be out picking peaches or digging ditches; God knows it'd be better for his health.
You can't try to do things; you simply must do them.
I think when you compete every week, when you play under pressure daily, you find your rituals to be 100 percent focused on what you're doing.
You don't move just because you want to go from this point to that point - the body has to be using the words as well as you vocally use the words.
I am the best damn ass-kicker in the whole U.S. Army!
But keep on working and hoping still. For in spite of the grumblers who stand about, somehow, it seems, all things work out.
Since I was a kid, music was what I wanted to do. I thought I could make it by my own talents. That's what I wanted to prove.
All achievement, no matter what may be its nature, or its purpose, must begin with an intense, burning desire for something definite.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.