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.
Interpretation
A writer's enthusiasm is crucial for creativity and passion in their work.
Ray Bradbury emphasizes the importance of excitement and enthusiasm in a writer's journey. He suggests that without a strong passion for writing, the task becomes as mundane as manual labor, underscoring the necessity of vigor and zeal in the creative process to truly engage with the art of writing.
In practice
This quote would inspire budding writers at a literary workshop.
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.
You can't try to do things; you simply must do them.
Ask no guarantees, ask for no security, there never was such an animal. And if there was it would be related to the great sloth which hangs upside down in a tree all day every day, sleeping its life away.
I always wrote. I wrote every day. I don't think I could have written 'Just Kids' had I not spent all of the '80s developing my craft as a writer.
Now art should never try to be popular. The public should try to make itself artistic.
Nothing bad can happen to a writer. Everything is material.
All my work is much more peaceful than I am.
And I think as long as a song has beautiful lyrics, I'm so happy.
It is not hard to compose, but what is fabulously hard is to leave the superfluous notes under the table.
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