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What should I do?" "Throw up in your typewriter every morning." "Yeah." "Clean up every noon.
Ray Bradbury
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Interpretation

What this quote means

Creativity requires effort and often involves messiness before achieving clarity.

This quote by Ray Bradbury emphasizes the chaotic and sometimes unpleasant nature of the creative process. It suggests that true artistic expression involves a raw, unfiltered output ('throw up in your typewriter'), and that one must be willing to engage in this messy process and then refine their work ('clean up every noon') to create something worthwhile.

Themes

CreativityArtProcessMessinessEffort

In practice

Example use cases

A motivational speech about embracing the challenges of the creative process.

More from Ray Bradbury

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!)
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I never went to college, so I went to the library.
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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.
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I think the sun is a flower, That blooms for just one hour.
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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.
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You can't try to do things; you simply must do them.
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