I've had a hard past 10 years struggling with mental illness. I am now at the bottom, penniless and reliant on my great family and the state of California for my health care and psychiatric medication.

But I never, ever gave up. Ray's Zen book means the world to me.

I read it and I feel like he is a kind uncle explaining to me what my day was like.

I tear up just in the preface. A lonely little kid, the creativity with no place to go. Thank you, Mr. Bradbury. You got through to someone.

Me.

Carry on, sir. As shall I.

Hi, KDan103. This is a decent post, in which you tell us something of yourself and how Ray has inspired you: exactly what this section of the board is for.

Elsewhere on the board, it you have been starting thread after thread with the same basic topic. This is making the place messy, and difficult to navigate, so as Deputy Moderator I am going to remove some of those posts. This is not an act of censorship, it is simply an act of tidying up.

There IS a search facility on this message board, and it is possible to find previous posts on the topic of ZEN AND THE ART OF WRITING. Generally, if a thread already exists on a topic, it is better to add to that thread rather than start a new, duplicate, thread.

You have also posted some messages which are totally out of order for this forum - talking of viruses, taking over the board, shouting of names to the board community as a whole, and making offensive remarks about Bradbury. These posts I have deleted, as they are thoroughly inappropriate. (If you wish, you MAY see THESE deletions as censorship.)

This message has been edited. Last edited by: philnic,

And this is all I needed, to know this was for real.

Please do remove anything or everything. Sometimes I want to scream about how Uncle Ray has inspired me and nobody can hear me.

Run fast. Stand still. This the lesson from lizards. For all writers.

In quickness is truth. The faster you blurt, the more swiftly you write, the more honest you are.
...
In between the scurries and the flights, what? Be a chameleon, ink-blend.

And the search things are horrible, I tried. Maybe not everyone is great with computers and the internet.

I MADE NO OFFENSES TO UNCLE RAY. I am listening to him, and now you are telling me what HE said is WRONG.

Kick me off if you want. No, there will be no more of what you think you had to remove. But sad you thought you did.

The truth is a virus. Talk hard. That's from Pump Up The Volume with Christian Slater.