Nuggets from Ray Bradbury

I've been reading a lot of great things about Ray Bradbury in the numerous eulogies. Two of the better ones:

1. TNC points us to this great quote from a Paris Review interview:
   

   INTERVIEWER
   You seem to have been open to a variety of influences.
   BRADBURY
   A conglomerate heap of trash, that's what I am. But it burns with a high flame.

2. Brain Pickings posted a bunch of Bradbury's pithy comments. As Neil Gaimain pointed out, "Ray Bradbury was the kind of person who would give half a day to a kid who wanted to be a writer when he grew up", so there's a lot of good advice from him out there, including this one:
   

   I never consciously place symbolism in my writing. That would be a self-conscious exercise and self-consciousness is defeating to any creative act. Better to get the subconscious to do the work for you, and get out of the way. The best symbolism is always unsuspected and natural. During a lifetime, one saves up information which collects itself around centers in the mind; these automatically become symbols on a subliminal level and need only be summoned in the heat of writing.