Ray Bradbury’s 7 Rules for Writers

1. Write with gusto.

2. In quickness is truth.

3.Write who you are.

4. Don’t write for money or fame.

5. Feed the muse daily.

6. Don’t be afraid to explore the attic.

7. Surprise yourself.

Bonus Rule: Do the work you were born to do — and no one else’s. Towards the end of Zen in the Art of Writing, Bradbury includes a series of poems about creativity. One of them is entitled, “What I Do Is Me, For That I Came.” In it, he writes:


    Be not another. Be the self I signed you in your blood…

    I leave you gifts of Fate most secret; find no other’s Fate,

    For if you do, no grave is deep enough for your despair

    No country far enough to hide your loss.




Ray Bradbury comments on his career and his sources of inspiration.