im a student at curtis school. in the begining of the year, i had to choose an author, and read 3 books by him/her. who did i pick? ray bradbury of course.being only 12, it would seem a little odd to be reading ray bradbury for some people. i am a defient child though, when it comes to the matter of conformity, and demand to be diffrent from my peers by my personality, morals, and philosphies. after finishing the latest bradbury book, farenheit 451, i sat down and thought to myself... wat do these books really mean? why would anyone have these thoughts? the answer that i came upon was the same one that is one of my principal philosephies... your life if completely 'unmeaningful' if u waste it trying to shape the mold of wat is supposed beauty, if you are inspired by the obvious, than what is the point of telling people that you are different, and that you are original, and because i see that someone else has seen this, i realized that this is why ray bradbury inspired me. because his literature does not fit the mold of wat writing 'should be,' but instead embraces the idea of plots, always heading in a diffrent direction, always changing. always different.

I once met and talked to Ray Bradbury in 1970. I asked him how he came up with his stories and he said that he sat at his typewriter for at least one hour each day and wrote whatever popped into his head. The whatever" leads to "something"....so, like anything else there is a discipline you must apply in order for something to happen. You are a writer when you write everyday. I've never forgotten that he took the time to talk with me and passed on his "discipline" to me. I feel I am a writer because I do write something every single day. I am unpublished and a legend in my own mind. (wink)

If you have that writer 'magic' in you, then a lot of work and promptings can bring it forth. But then that's like that with anything. I always appreciate the words from the coach, in the movie ''Chariots of Fire":
"You can't put in ...what God has left out!"

thanx for replying.... and good luk with getting your bookz published. :-)

I came to love reading relatively late, as a young man in college. The reading workload during that time challenged and inspired me. One of the books I read (not course work) was Dandelion Wine. It touched me on a very personal level. Doug's epiphany about being alive was something that had passed me by during my teen years as I struggled to cope with the loss of my mother. Thank you, Mr. Bradbury, for helping me to see. Even now.