A few years before his death in 2012 at age 91, Ray Bradbury shared his thoughts about his life and his writing with interviewer Sam Weller in The Paris Review (Summer 2012). Here are excerpts from the interview that focus on Bradbury’s sources of inspiration and techniques for getting inspired.
WRITERS WHO INSPIRED:
I used to study Eudora Welty. She has the remarkable ability to give you atmosphere, character, and motion in a single line. In one line! You must study these things to be a good writer. Welty would have a woman simply come into a room and look around. In one sweep she gave you the feel of the room, the sense of the woman’s character, and the action itself. All in twenty words. And you say, How’d she do that? What adjective? What verb? What noun? How did she select them and put them together?
I was an intense student. Sometimes I’d get an old copy of [Thomas] Wolfe and cut out paragraphs and paste them in my story, because I couldn’t do it, you see. I was so frustrated! And then I’d retype whole sections of other people’s novels just to see how it felt coming out. Learn their rhythm.
JUMPSTARTING THE IMAGINATION:
…in the old days I knew I had to dredge my subconscious…I did it by making lists of nounsand then asking, What does each noun mean? …The night. The crickets. The train whistle. The basement. The attic. The tennis shoes. The fireworks…Then, when you get the list down, you begin to word-associate around it. You ask, Why did I put this word down? What does it mean to me? Why did I put this noun down and not some other word? Do this and you’re on your way to being a good writer…Make a list of ten things you hate and tear them down in a short story or poem. Make a list of ten things you love and celebrate them.
...I started to write short, descriptive paragraphs, two hundred words each, and in them I began to examine my nouns. Then I’d bring some characters on to talk about that noun and that place, and all of a sudden I had a story going. I used to do the same thing with photographs that I’d rip out of glossy magazines. I’d take the photographs and I’d write little prose poems about them.
…When I look at the paintings of Edward Hopper, it does this. He did those wonderful townscapes of empty cafes, empty theaters at midnight with maybe one person there. The sense of isolation and loneliness is fantastic. I’d look at those landscapes and I’d fill them with my imagination…
THE DOOR
Silver Birch Press 