Don’t let people interfere with you. Boot ’em out, turn off the phone, hide away, get it done. If you carry a short story over to the next day you may overnight intellectualize something about it and try to make it too fancy, try to please someone.
Interpretation
Stay focused on your tasks by eliminating distractions.
This quote emphasizes the importance of maintaining focus and not allowing external influences to disrupt your work. Ray Bradbury suggests that if you carry unfinished tasks into the next day, you risk overthinking and complicating them unnecessarily, often in an effort to meet others' expectations rather than your own.
In practice
This quote can inspire students preparing for exams to minimize distractions.
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.
In order to ask with real intent or to act with full purpose of heart, we must always make an accompanying commitment.
Failure is an event, never a person; an attitude, not an outcome; a temporary inconvenience; a stepping stone. Our response to it determines just how helpful it can be.
Stop wasting time in playing a role or a concept. Instead, learn to ACTUALIZE YOURSELF, your potential.
Somethings don't always work out the way you plan. The main thing is to keep trying, do better next time, and deal with disappointment if it comes.
Once you're back on your feet - if you ever make it back on your feet - that's the ultimate achievement. I remember I was in New York at the Trump Hotel and I woke up and I just knew I was over it. It was a different day. I felt different. I didn't feel lonely. I felt like I wanted to get up and be in the world. That was a great, great feeling.
Do not forget: seek to win all your battles, including those you fight against yourself. Do not fear the scars. Do not be afraid of victory.
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