We have our Arts so we won't die of Truth.
Interpretation
Arts help us cope with the harsh realities of truth.
Ray Bradbury's quote emphasizes the importance of the arts in human existence. He suggests that while truth can be harsh and overwhelming, the arts provide a crucial outlet for expression, interpretation, and emotional relief, allowing us to navigate and endure the challenges of reality without succumbing entirely to its starkness.
In practice
In a speech about the importance of creativity in education, one could reference this quote to advocate for arts programs.
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 can’t imagine, to make a woman stay in a burning house; there must be something there. You don’t 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.
I think the mystery of art lies in this, that artists’ relationship is essentially with their work — not with power, not with profit, not with themselves, not even with their audience.
Ah, music," he said, wiping his eyes. "A magic far beyond all we do here! And now, bedtime. Off you trot!
Risk is at the heart of jazz. Every note we play is a risk.
You can approach the act of writing with nervousness, excitement, hopefulness, or even despair - the sense that you can never completely put on the page what's in your mind and heart. You can come to the act with your fists clenched and your eyes narrowed, ready to kick ass and take down names. You can come to it because you want a girl to marry you or because you want to change the world. Come to it any way but lightly. Let me say it again: you must not come lightly to the blank page.
The artists we love, they put their fingerprint on your imagination, and on your heart and your soul.
When I paint a person, his enemies always find the portrait a good likeness.
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