Happy 86th, Ray. I hope it finds you full of energy and just as excited as always to get it down on paper.

Happy Birthday Ray. Wishing you the best and I still want you to see my movie "The Dealer".

A day late but sincere.

Thank you for sharing yourself with us and helping me find parts of myself I didn't know existed.

I will be revisiting your books again and again.

Further to The Lake's message, you can listen to Ray on KPCC radio by clicking here.

The interview lasts about seven minutes.

Happiest of birthdays, Ray! And thanks for continuing to inspire the child in us all with your wonderful writing!

With much affection,

Richard

quote:

Originally posted by philnic:
Further to The Lake's message, you can listen to Ray on KPCC radio by clicking here.

The interview lasts about seven minutes.

Phil,

Wonderful and endearing interview with Ray. So much wisdom and love flows from that man's heart. I enjoyed the jazzy intro of Happy Birthday before the interview. Real classy.

Your website is top drawer. It's been awhile since I've visited it, but from what I've seen and heard there today, maybe your site should be the official RB site!

Keep up the good work. I'll be sure to visit your site more often now.

Lake

Thought y'all would like to see this article from CNN.com.

Happy Ray Day!

Patrick Mullins

------------------------------------------------

CNN.COM

August 23, 2006

Ray Bradbury forecasts highs for humanity
'Our future is wonderful,' says famed author

PASADENA, California (AP) -- Author Ray Bradbury turned 86 on Tuesday and still has his eye on the stars -- both celestial and earthbound.

The author of such science fiction and fantasy classics as "The Martian Chronicles" and "Something Wicked This Way Comes" said he believes that humans will return to the moon, then go to Mars and eventually to other worlds.

"Our future is wonderful," he told Patt Morrison in an interview on KPCC, a Pasadena-based public radio station.

Bradbury also said he is working on a screenplay for a new movie version of "Chronicles" that he hopes will start shooting within two years. A 1980 TV miniseries version starred the late Rock Hudson.

Bradbury also said he hopes shooting will start within 18 months on a new version of "Fahrenheit 451," which was optioned years ago by Mel Gibson. Bradbury's novel about a futuristic fireman whose job is to burn books was made into a 1966 film directed by Francois Truffaut.

Bradbury sold his first story at 21. He earned $15.

"All of a sudden, I was rich," he said.

"I write hours every single day for the last 70 years. So that's how I'm spending my 86th birthday," he said. "You just keep doing it because it's so great."

Bradbury, born on August 22, 1920, in Waukegan, Illinois, is a longtime Los Angeles resident. The author, who doesn't drive, continued his long-standing griping about local traffic and called on the mayor to push mass transit.

"I want to talk to him about getting rid of our freeways, because they're no good. We have to have monorail systems," Bradbury said, adding that he'd be happy to have a station named after him.

Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

The Earth has gone around the sun 86 times for you Ray Bradbury! Here's to a very happy Birthday. I Love You!

Happy Belated Birthday, Mr. Bradbury!
You are an inspiration to me in more ways than I can tell you. Thank you so much for putting it out there and knocking down walls and sharing your fine spirit with the world.
Not sure if you recall, but when you were visiting Edmonton, Alberta, Canada to speak and oversee a theatre production of Something WIcked This Way Comes, I had given you a couple of illustrations that I'd done for your short stories (one was of a vile little "doctor" gnawing on a breadstick whilst gazing longingly at someone's x-ray). You later mailed me a wonderful note including a sketch of your own of a creature with blood dripping from its fangs. Just wanted you to know it remains my fondest possession, probably the only thing other than my wedding rings I'd try to rescue if my house caught fire. You still inspire me to draw and write, and I wanted to thank you so much for that. You're the best!
Jen

Happy 86th Birthday Mr. Bradbury! Thank you for your inspirational words, keep trying to change our world for the better with your pen, I think it might be working!

New (and brief) interview with RB on Publishers Weekly:

http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6363759.html?...2006&display=current

Yesterday, although a day late, I called Ray and a fellow worker, Irena, who is from Russia, was able to speak with Ray. She mentioned that she first read his stories when she was 14 and has read several of his books in Russian. She asked him if he realized that he was so well liked in Russia. He liked that comment very much she said.

She told him that she was happy to have read F451 in Russian and now is reading it in English, as I gave her an English language copy.
She told him that never in her life did she would ever think to have the chance to speak to him.

She said she talks to her mother almost every day and had told her about being able to speak with Ray (we were going to do it on the 22nd but she had to leave early due an ill child) and so when she called her mother yesterday, that was the first thing her mother asked her was, did she get to talk to Ray.

Pavel's great site is proof enough of his popularity, but it is nice to hear from a young lady as well.

biplane1
Unfortunately, Russian publishers have never paid Mr. Bradbury a single Copeica. Some estimates as high as 7 figures have been sited of royalities never collected from his published works in Russian.

It was printed back during the cold war (early 1960s) that he'd never received royalties from Russia. I guess after the collapse of the Soviet Union they didn't have the money, either.

quote:

Originally posted by libRArY:
Unfortunately, Russian publishers have never paid Mr. Bradbury a single Copeica.

Furthermore, he never got paid for the Russian version of "Dandelion Wine" which was filmed. In fact, this post sparks my memory as to a conversation I had with Mr B on the 14th, when I was at the house filming my doc. The conversation had turned to "D Wine" and, of course, the sequel, when I mentioned that I have long been interested in writing a screenplay for the novel, as it has never been optioned, but I wondered aloud how it might be to adapt, as the book is such beautiful poetic prose, and full of metaphors - something that does not always translate well to the screen. So the subject of "Vino iz oduvanchikov", the filmed 1997 version, was broached. He said he had never seen it! He said that it was not authorized by him, and when he discovered they had filmed it anyway, he called the filmmakers and told them that they didn't have to pay him for it, just let him see it. He would fly over there, attend a public screening, and even speak. He said they were agreeable to that, but when he said they would have to pay his airfare, they said no, they couldn't do that. So that was the end of it.

Incredible!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Doug Spaulding,