“When the joy stops, I’ll stop writing,” Ray Bradbury says towards the end of this 1972 interview with the esteemed author, animated by PBS Digital Studios for its Blank On Blank series. Maybe it’s wrong to suppose that words spoken 40 years before the author’s death were true to the end, but it’s comforting to the think that Bradbury, still prolific in his final years, held onto that joy.
Recorded by a pair of college students en route between Bradbury’s home in West Los Angeles and Chapman College in Orange County, the interview finds the writer gamely dancing between topics, talking about the benefits of madmen, writing a good story, and his fear of flying (and driving), to name a few. It’s wise and frank and funny and charming–everything a fan of Bradbury’s could hope for.
