I’ve often been accused of being too emotional and sentimental, but I believe in honest sentiment, and the need to purge ourselves at certain times, which is ancient. Men would live at least five or six more years and not have ulcers if they could cry better.
Interpretation
Emotional expression is vital for mental health and can lead to a longer, healthier life.
Ray Bradbury emphasizes the importance of expressing emotions and sentimentality as a means to cleanse oneself emotionally. He suggests that societal constraints on male emotional expression can lead to mental and physical health issues, such as ulcers, and advocates for the therapeutic value of crying and being honest with one's feelings.
In practice
In a talk about mental health, one might say, 'As Ray Bradbury pointed out, expressing our emotions can significantly impact our well-being.'
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.
The woman who follows the crowd will usually believe that I said this.
One of the things I had to learn as a writer was to trust the act of writing. To put myself in the position of writing to find out what I was writing.
History teaches us that men and nations behave wisely once they have exhausted all other alternatives.
Sometimes you don’t just want to risk making mistakes; you actually want to make them - if only to give you something clear and detailed to fix.
As a younger person, my philosophy was jump off a cliff. I realize now that there are stairs and elevators. I am learning every day to allow the space between where I am and where I want to be to inspire me and not terrify me. I can even ask for help! Not feeling that I have to know everything, and that’s where the growth comes in, in the not knowing.
My favorite definition of an intellectual: 'Someone who has been educated beyond his/her intelligence'.
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