Long before Adventures in Scifi Publishing was a spark in Shaun’s inner eye, he started an interview column with the now retired Far Sector SFFH. Ray Bradbury was the first author Shaun ever interviewed for this column, and considering that Mr. Bradbury is Shaun’s literary idol, he was quite nervous. Thankfully, you can’t hear the tremors in his voice.
This interview was first published in May, 2005.
Shaun Farrell: Let’s talk about the new book. It’s a biography entitled The Bradbury Chronicles, by Sam Weller.
Ray Bradbury: He made up that title, yes.
SF: I was wondering if you could tell me how the book came into conception.
RB: Well, about five years ago, Sam went to The Herald Tribune in Chicago and said, “Ray Bradbury’s eightieth birthday is coming up, and I would like to do an article on him.” So The Herald Tribune gave permission and he called me and he flew out to the coast and he did the article. And it was splendid. So, having met me that one time, he came on two more occasions, and he finally said to me, “Has anyone ever done a biography on you?” I said, “No.” And he said, “Why not?” I said, “Well I don’t believe I’m ready to have a biography written about me. It’s the bookend of a life. I’m not ready to say that I need bookends.” But he kept insisting, and I begin to see the more I met him that he was a twin. Like an honorary son. So finally at the end of the summer I gave him permission, and he began to fly out to the coast every three weeks for the next four years. It was a heck of a lot of flying and research. So, the final book is a triumph. He’s done a fantastic job.
SF: It’s interesting that he started out with an article and it turned into a book when several—
RB: That’s true. When you think of all my books they started out as articles or short stories or screenplays that turn into novels. So what’s true for me is true for Sam.
SF: There was also another book by Jerry Weist published in 2002 called The Illustrated Life.
RB: That’s right. It’s more of a metaphorical survey of my life – all the metaphors of my life, all the covers I’ve conceived for my books, all of my interests in metaphorical subjects, in comic books, in motion pictures, what have you. So, it’s really a display of all the metaphors of my life. It’s a wonderful picture book, but it’s not a complete biography. So Sam Weller has come along and filled in all the details.
SF: So they make nice companion pieces, working together.
RB: They do, indeed. It’s wonderful.
SF: I noticed in The Illustrated Life a lot of beautiful book covers by Joseph Mugnaini. His work really seemed to capture the mystery and the sense of magic that’s in your work.
RB: Wonderful. He came into my life fifty years ago. I was out with my wife one night, back in 1951, and I passed this art store, and I saw this wonderful lithograph in the window of a Gothic/Victorian house. And I said, “My God, that’s beautiful work. I would love to own that. But I bet we can’t afford it.” So the next day, I went to the art store, and I asked them how much the Joe Mugnaini lithograph was worth, and they said, “Seventy-five dollars.” Well, I didn’t have that. Back in 1951, my income was still very small—50 dollars to 75 dollars a week. So, I bought the lithograph that time, and paid the money off in about three months. And then they showed me some wonderful oil paintings that he had done of the same building, and some other concepts that he had. Looking at them, I said, “My God, this man has read my mind. All the fantastic dreams I’ve had, all the nightmares, are represented in the works of this single artist.” So, by God, I called the art store and I got his phone number and I went up to visit him. I told him that I had very little money, but that if his paintings didn’t sell at the art store, I would buy them from him at half price. In other words, when you have your paintings in an art store, you split it fifty-fifty with them. I couldn’t afford to buy the full price, but I could afford to pay half price to the artists. Leave the art gallery out of it. So, two weeks later, I got a phone call from Joe Mugnaini and he said, “The paintings haven’t sold. Come pick them up.” So, I went and picked the paintings up and I discovered six months or a year later that he had pulled them out of a show in order to give them to me. So that’s the kind of person he was. He wasn’t interested in money at all. He was interested in ideas and in painting. So that’s how our relationship began.
SF: Art is very important to you, isn’t it?
RB: I’m a born collector of metaphors. I’ve spent my life in museums, wandering around and looked at the pictures and getting to know the artists, and collecting pictures wherever I had the chance—if the paintings were not too expensive.
SF: Are there any other artists that have had a particular influence on you?
RB: No, Joe Mugnaini is the main one. The whole history of art has influenced me. The work of Salvador Dali was of some interest, but he was a little too fantastic. He sort of got out of hand most the time. But, some of the paintings of the Renaissance, and much of the work the Impressionists, whose work extended into the twentieth century, were very influential in a way.
SF: Change of subject. I’ve been noticing for some time that Warner Brothers is developing A Sound of Thunder for the big screen. I was wondering if you could tell us about that and how involved you are in the process.
RB: The film is finished. They spent two years making it in Czechoslovakia. They spent 100 million dollars on it. And I finally saw it out at the studio two weeks ago and it’s worked wonderfully. They’ve done a beautiful job. And the director of the film is not only the director, but the cinematographer. His work photographing the picture is quite amazing.
SF: Do you have any idea when the film will be released?
RB: They tell me in August, and I said, “For God’s sake, make it on my birthday then!” My birthday is August 22nd. I’m hoping that Warner Brothers will decide to release it on my birthday.
SF: That would be quite a birthday present.
RB: It would be wonderful.
SF: What’s the news about the remake of Fahrenheit 451?”
RB: Frank Darabont has done a new script and there have been fifteen scripts developed on Fahrenheit, which is ridiculous. My answer to that is shoot the book and you can’t go wrong, because the book is a screenplay. Frank Darabont will continue to direct the film, but we have no money. So you have to go find money somewhere to get the film made.
SF: Do you have any preferences for you plays Montag?
RB: Not really, there are a lot of good people, but I would like to have Sean Connery play the fire chief. I think he would be brilliant.
SF: It seems like Hollywood is making a film of every novel ever written. Does it seem to you that there is a lack of originality in Hollywood?
RB: Oh, boy, that’s an understatement. If you turn on your set at night and get some of the cable stations and they’re playing films written and produced in Hollywood over the last five years, my God, they’re dreadful. They are full of explosions, and gunfire, and macho males trying to prove their masculinity to one another. They’re not very original, but I’m hoping someone will come along and do my novel Dandelion Wine, which would make a wonderful film. I’ve done it as a screenplay, and I’ve done it as a musical, and it works. So, I know it would work in film also.
SF: And that’s a very autobiographical work, isn’t it?
RB: It sure is.
SF: It seems that so many books are being turned into films that people are choosing not to read because they say, “I’ll see the movie.”
RB: Oh, that’s not true. They’re still reading.
SF: How would you fix Hollywood?
RB: Tell them to do some good writing. The screenplay is the secret to everything. So if you have a good screenplay, you have a good film.
SF: Have you seen any really great science fiction films over the last few years?
RB: No, there’s been nothing; it’s all junk. Most of it is junk.
SF: Fads in publishing and film come and go, but you have remained popular for decades. How do you do it?
RB: By writing quality stuff. I don’t like all the mechanics that go into a lot of novels. A lot of science fiction is about how to build a rocket, how to fly a rocket, how to destroy a city, how to destroy people in outer space. I’m not interested in that. I’m interested in human beings. That’s why.
SF: What would you say to young, aspiring writers who want to be rich and famous?
RB: If you want to be rich and famous, don’t go into writing. You have the wrong motive. I don’t believe in being rich and famous, to hell with that. I’m not interested in the money or the fame. I’m interested in being a great writer. If you want to be a writer, you need to go to the library and live there for years and read all the great books. Forget about getting famous and rich, because it doesn’t work that way.
SF: Michael Shurtleff (author of Audition) says the same thing about acting. He basically says if you want to be rich and famous don’t act, because you’ll be miserable. Only act if you’ll go insane if you don’t. Writing strikes me as being the same way.
RB: Everything has to do with quality; everything has to do with love. If you want to be an actor, you have to love the theatre and the stage. I’ve been in theatre since I was in high school, and I’ve never made a dime from it. I have my own theater, the Pandemonium Theater. I’ve written thirty plays and put them on in various theaters in L.A., and I’ve never made a dime. But the reward I get is the love I have for the theatre, and for my actors, and for writing for the stage. So, that’s got to be the reward you get.
SF: What should young writers be reading?
RB: It’s up to them. Read what you love. I can’t give a list. Go to the library, go to the bookstore, find things you love, and read them. It’s very simple.
SF: You call yourself a collector of metaphors. What metaphor would you use to characterize our modern age of terrorism?
RB: Well (laughter), you can supply that answer yourself. Pure terror, that’s all. There is no metaphor to describe it. But that’s not the complete age. It is an age we went to the moon, and I’m sorry we came home, and I hope we go back. I hope we go on to Mars now. That’s going to be a part of this age in the next twenty years…You can’t find out what an age is until it’s over, and you can’t do much to influence it except set a good example. If you believe in quality, that’s the example you set. And if I have people who follow me, and imitate me, and are clones of mine, that’s great. I have a lot of young writers who think I’m okay, and they want to live that way too.
SF: If you could collaborate with any other author, who would it be?
RB: No, you can’t collaborate. That’s not creative. I did some of that when I was 21 years old, and I soon discovered that I used my collaborator as a crutch, and he used me as a crutch. Collaboration is not good. You can’t do it.
SF: What book are you reading right now?
RB: I’m re-reading Saint Joan, the play by George Bernard Shaw.
SF: How has George Bernard Shaw influenced you as you adapt your own work for the stage?
RB: In writing my plays the last forty years, Shaw has been a constant companion and influence. He’s wonderful because he does serious subjects with his tongue in his cheek. He has a wonderful sense of humor.
SF: What are you working on right now?
RB: Two novels that I’ve been working on for many years: a sequel to Dandelion Wine called Farewell Summer, and another novel I began many years ago called Somewhere a Band is Playing.
SF: Ray, thank you for taking time to speak to us.
RB: Thank you so much. You take care now.
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