More on Ray

Neil Gaiman (again!) with a fresh, just-written appreciation of Ray Bradbury. In it, Neil says…

Last week, at dinner, a friend told me that when he was a boy of 11 or 12 he met Ray Bradbury. When Bradbury found out that he wanted to be a writer, he invited him to his office and spent half a day telling him the important stuff: if you want to be a writer, you have to write. Every day. Whether you feel like it or not. That you can't write one book and stop. That it's work, but the best kind of work. My friend grew up to be a writer, the kind who writes and supports himself through writing.

That's me. I was actually more like 14 or 15 when I first met him but otherwise, that's what I told Neil over dinner last week. That thing about writing every day whether you feel like it or not…that's one of the most important things I learned from Ray. A few years later I learned it again from Jack Kirby. I've been fortunate to know a lot of brilliant writers and artists (Neil is yet another) and while some work harder than others, they all work hard.

You and I may never be as brilliant as a Ray Bradbury or a Jack Kirby…but it is possible to work just as hard as Ray Bradbury or Jack Kirby.