Ray Bradbury's Wise Words

[paragraphs]

If you are writing without zest, without gusto, without love, without fun, you are only half a writer. It means you are so busy keeping one eye on the commercial market, or one ear peeled for the avant-garde coterie, that you are not being yourself. You don't even know yourself. For the first thing that 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 would be better for his health.


I need this plastered in front of my face.

Comments

[catsintheattic.livejournal.com]

I hear you on the need to have a clean house - especially with the bigger projects it's so much better to write in a clear environment.

I like how you change your surrounding: the bed and laptop. Writing in cafes with a friend worked very well for me, maybe I should try to do that on my own, too. This is why I'm so fascinated when you talk about writing in the bookshop. Music never worked for me as a background thing, not even when I was at school. It distracts me and whenever I try to listen to music, I turn the level so low that I don't hear it any longer.

I wish I could simply wear a special outfit to get into that writerly mind set.