In Hollywood, they think they know it all. You, as a writer, are essentially an outsider. Novelists and short-story writers, especially.
Interpretation
Writers often feel like outsiders in the film industry, despite its perceptions of knowledge and creativity.
Ray Bradbury suggests that in Hollywood, there is a prevailing arrogance among filmmakers who believe they possess all the answers. This creates a barrier for writers, particularly novelists and short-story creators, who find themselves on the fringes of this culture, struggling to produce their work in an environment that doesn't fully appreciate their art or their unique perspective.
In practice
This quote can be used in a speech about the struggles of writers in the film industry.
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 canβt imagine, to make a woman stay in a burning house; there must be something there. You donβt 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.
Movies took you right up to the edge but kept you safe.
Life is an art we are required to practice without preparation, a score that we play at sight even before we have mastered our instruments.
When a book is alive, really alive, you feel it. You put it to your ear here, and you feel it breathe, sometimes laugh, sometimes cry, just like a person, a little person.
the whole purport of literature...is the notation of the heart. Style is but the faintly contemptible vessel in which the bitter liquid is recommended to the world.
I feel like everything you learn as an actor growing up is wrong. You're supposed to hit your mark, find your light and know your lines. Those are all things that just make things wooden, dull and boring.
Works of art cannot save us. They can simply render us more sensitive to what needs to be repaired.
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