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Wonderful stuff. And it pairs well with Ray Bradbury's sublime advice in his essay "How to Keep and Feed a Muse," which is collected in his equally sublime book ZEN IN THE ART OF WRITING. https://raybradbury.ru/stuff/zen_in_the_art_of_writing.pdf

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Lol. I just finished reading that book. And I love the way he thinks about, well, everything. But I actually wrote this post long before reading it so the comparison flatters my ego immensely.

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One of those instances, which I, too, I'm quite familiar with, where one's own interests and insights lead to other people who are similarly turned, and whose words and works help to illuminate what one already feels and knows.

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And this is sublime, “I went back to collecting Buck Rogers. My life has been happy ever since. For that was the beginning of my writing science fiction. Since then, I have never listened to anyone who criticized my taste in space travel, sideshows or gorillas. When this occurs, I pack up my dinosaurs and leave the room.”

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The “space travel, sideshows or gorillas” line is classic and has stayed with me for years.

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One of my favorite passages, “Trains and boxcars and the smell of coal and fire are not ugly to children. Ugliness is a concept that we happen on later and become self-conscious about. Counting boxcars is a prime activity of boys…”

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