Ray Bradbury on Madmen | Blank on Blank | PBS Digital Studios

"Nobody else is going to give a damn what you're doing, so you need a few other people like yourself"
- Ray Bradbury as told to two college kids on road trip in 1972

In the autumn of 2012, Lisa Potts rediscovered -- literally, behind her dresser -- a taped cassette of a long-lost interview with author Ray Bradbury that she made as a college student journalist back in 1972.

The recording was made in a car plying the Los Angeles freeways between Bradbury's home in West L.A. and Chapman College in Orange County. Potts and a fellow student named Chadd Coates were taking Bradbury to present a lecture. Bradbury had a lot of advice for Lisa and Chadd.

On tape we get to hear Bradbury telling the students about the keys to friendship, why he was afraid of himself and would never drive, his keys to writing and telling a story, why Mars was the center of his fascination, what's the secret to love, and why he called himself "a madman".

Ray Bradbury's Advice
"You find a few other nuts like yourself, and they're your friends for a lifetime."
"That's what friends are, the people who share your crazy outlook and protect you from the world."
" I am a dedicated madman, and that becomes its own training."
"If you have to ask yourself whether or not you love a girl or you love a boy, forget it. You don't."
"You either feel a story and need to write it, or you better not write it."

Get more never before heard excerpts from Ray Bradbury on our website:
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Animator: Patrick Smith
Audio Producer: Amy Drozdowska

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