This is pretty cool: A video interview excerpt from decades ago with writer Ray Bradbury talking about the movie Illustrated Man:
A quote from the interview:
We save up a tension for tears. So I as a writer come along and try to help you to cry. We save up a tension for laughter… I come along as a writer and help you to laugh. We save up tensions for murdering… so I come along with a story and enable you for an hour to murder. So that the next day, you don’t have to do it in reality.
Any Ray Bradbury fans? What are your favorite Bradbury stories?
I'm a fan of his office! At last, someone I can hide behind when my wife points and scowls at the stacks of stacks, the clutter and keepsake, the general wreckage created as one tries to catch lightning in a bottle…
FAHRENHEIT 451 is at the top, for me — loved the novel in high school, the first film, and most recently, the Frank Darabont screenplay that's awaiting a green light. Highly recommend that one, especially for voice and style.
Favorite story, hard to pick, but first book read, Fahrenheit 451, favorite movie (Bradbury did book and script), Something Wicked This Way Comes, and favorite related video, F*ck Me, Ray Bradbury (can see here).
Weird coincidence that this video happens to appear on the blog at this time, because I was thinking about Bradbury a lot lately.
I wasn't (consciously) aware of him until I watched this lecture.
An Evening with Ray Bradbury
Very inspiring. What I took away from it was to start writing short stories or rather short scripts. It helps me to clear my head from the clutter of ideas (good and not so good ones) that distracts my focus sometimes.
I haven't read his stories, yet. But I will definitely make up for it.
Three collections – "I Sing the Body Electric," "The Machineries of Joy," and "Quicker The the Eye." Required reading, the lot.
Reading Bradbury restores life. Who can do better?
Ray Bradbury FTW!
A little known gem, in case you haven't read it, is his novel 'A Graveyard for Lunatics'
http://www.amazon.com/Graveyard-Lunatics-Another-Tale-Cities/dp/0380812002
Bradbury's absolute obsession and love for the movies translates into a breathless mystery novel about a movie studio and the end of the golden era of movies. Brilliant, heartbreaking, beautifully written and with so many references to (and thinly veiled cameos from) the greats of cinema, I'm stunned why it never features in his best works. But then, it is a bit difficult to read, more stream of consciousness than most of his other work. But a must, MUST read for all film fans.
Thanks so much for this link Scott. Any time you come down to India, I'll give you a personal tour of Bollywood as payback