One of Harryhausen's dinosaurs

When did you two first meet?
HARRYHAUSEN: I think it was way back in
1938, wasn't it?

BRADBURY: That's right, yeah.

HARRYHAUSEN: We met through our mutual love for dinosaurs. He was going to write the great dinosaur epic and I was going to animate it. [they both laugh] But we never got to work together except by chance on Beast From 20,000 Fathoms [Harryhausen did the effects, Bradbury has a writing credit].

Do you remember what the plot of your dinosaur epic was going to be?
BRADBURY: You never know those things when you're 18 years old. [laughs]

But you both shared similar inspirations?
BRADBURY: King Kong inspired us both.

HARRYHAUSEN: We got to appreciate dinosaurs in The Lost World.

BRADBURY: My first influence was Lon Chaney. I was 3 years old. I remember being born, actually, so I have total recall from the moment of birth on — which makes me a goddamn good writer, don't you think? [both laugh] When I was 6, I saw The Lost World — we both were the same age — and dinosaurs became a constant in our lives. Whatever it is, when you're young, that you fall in love with, stay in love with it for a lifetime and create out of that. When I was 12, I got a job at a radio station reading Flash Gordon comic strips to the public every Saturday night, playing all the parts. And how did I get paid? I got free tickets to see King Kong, Mystery of the Wax Museum, and The Mummy! You can't do better than that, can you? I was rich!

Why is fantasy still so important?
BRADBURY: Because we're surrounded by reality, which is stupid.

HARRYHAUSEN: It's "what if," isn't it? What if this could happen? It's stretching your imagination.

BRADBURY: The films that are making all the money are films like Spider-Man, which is really stupid. They've made three Spider-Man films now and they've made a billion dollars. So that makes it rough for [Harryhausen] and for me because we don't write things to make money, that's not the reason. We wrote because we loved it. So Spider-Man comes out, and from the start it's really stupid because if you know anything about spiders, only the female produces a web! The males don't produce webs. But if you're going to have a web, it [makes more sense] for it to come out of his penis! [both laugh]

What is the strangest question either of you have ever been asked?
HARRYHAUSEN: I get this strange question all the time: What is creativity? How do you answer a question like that? It's just the way you see things. How else would you identify creativity?

BRADBURY: The answer is love. I get letters all the time from teachers asking what advice I would give to students and I give very simple advice. Love what you do and do what you love. You won't make money, that's not guaranteed, that has nothing to do with it. It's all love, that's the answer.

HARRYHAUSEN: And don't let anybody talk you out of it.