Extended excerpt: [Non-fiction] “A schedule defends from chaos and whim. It is a net for catching days. It is a scaffolding on which a worker can stand and labor with both hands at sections of time. A schedule is a mock-up of reason and order – willed, faked, and so brought into being; it is a peace and a haven set into the wreck of time; it is a lifeboat on which you find yourself, decades later, still living.” (p. 32)

Source note: From The Writing Life publisher notes: “Excerpts from this book appeared in Black Warrior Review, Esquire, the New York Times Book Review, Tikkun, and TriQuarterly.”

Source: Editor’s copy – The Writing Life (1989|2013 Harper Perennial reprint) International Standard Book Number (ISBN) 0-06-016516-6

Extended excerpt: [Non-fiction] “What then shall I do this morning? How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. What we do with this hour, and that one, is what we are doing. A schedule defends from chaos and whim.” (p. 32)

Source note: From The Writing Life publisher notes: “Excerpts from this book appeared in Black Warrior Review, Esquire, the New York Times Book Review, Tikkun, and TriQuarterly.”

Source: Editor’s copy – The Writing Life (1989|2013 Harper Perennial reprint) International Standard Book Number (ISBN) 0-06-016516-6

Extended excerpt: [Non-fiction; author’s narrative]

“I stood, alone, and the world swayed. I am a fugitive and a vagabond, a sojourner seeking signs.” (p. 267)

Source note: From the Pilgrim at Tinker Creek publisher notes: “Portions of this work previously appeared in the following publications: The Atlantic, Harper’s Magazine, Travel and Leisure, Sports Illustrated, Prose, The Christian Science Monitor, The Carolina Quarterly, The Living Wilderness, Cosmopolitan.”

Source: Library – Pilgrim at Tinker Creek (1974 | 1988 Harper & Row/First Perennial) International Standard Book Number (ISBN) 0-06-091545-5

Extended excerpt: [Non-fiction; author’s narrative] “We don’t know what’s going on here. If these tremendous events are random combinations of matter run amok, the yield of millions of monkeys at millions of typewriters, then what is it in us, hammered out of those same typewriters, that they ignite? We don’t know. Our life is a faint tracing on the surface of mystery, like the idle, curved tunnels of leaf miners on the face of a leaf. We must somehow take a wider view, look at the whole landscape, really see it, and describe what’s going on here.” (pp. 8-9)

Source note: From the Pilgrim at Tinker Creek publisher notes: “Portions of this work previously appeared in the following publications: The Atlantic, Harper’s Magazine, Travel and Leisure, Sports Illustrated, Prose, The Christian Science Monitor, The Carolina Quarterly, The Living Wilderness, Cosmopolitan.”

Source: Library – Pilgrim at Tinker Creek (1974 | 1988 Harper & Row/First Perennial) International Standard Book Number (ISBN) 0-06-091545-5

Extended excerpt: [Fiction]

“She wrote, as Hugh did, in a state compounded of mental vigor and bodily exhaustion. After she wrote her letter, she read borrowed books into the small hours. She reads books as one would breathe air, to fill up and live; she read books as one would breathe ether, to sink in and die.” (p. 391)

Source: Library – The Living (1992) International Standard Book Number (ISBN) 0-06-016870-6

Extended excerpt: [Non-fiction; author’s narrative. Dillard is describing a mockingbird that dove from a tree before spreading its wings to break its acceleration toward the ground.]

“The fact of his free fall was like the old philosophical conundrum about the tree that falls in the forest. The answer must be, I think, that beauty and grace are performed whether or not we will or sense them. The least we can do is try to be there.” (p. 8)

Source link: Library – Pilgrim at Tinker Creek (1974 | 1988 Harper & Row/First Perennial) International Standard Book Number (ISBN) 0-06-091545-5

Extended excerpt: [Essay]

“Billions of stars sift among each other untouched, too distant ever to be moved, heedless as always, hushed. The sea pronounces something, over and over, in a hoarse whisper; I cannot quite make it out. But God knows I have tried.”

Source note: Dillard’s essay can also be found in her book Teaching a Stone to Talk: Expeditions and Encounters (1982).

Source: Library – The Atlantic (January 1981) International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) 0004-6795

Extended excerpt: [Non-fiction narrative]

“We sleep to time’s hurdy-gurdy; we wake; if we ever wake, to the silence of God. And then, when we wake to the deep shores of time uncreated, then when the dazzling dark breaks over the far slopes of time, then it’s time to toss things, like our reason, and our will; then it’s time to break our necks for home.

   There are no events but thoughts and the heart’s hard turning, the heart’s slow learning where to love and whom. The rest is merely gossip, and tales for other times.” (p. 35)

Source link: Holy the Firm (1977 | July 2007 eBook edition) online via Scribd [subscription service]: https://www.scribd.com/read/163632896/Holy-the-Firm#Search_search-menu_73878

Extended excerpt: [Non-fiction] “There is no shortage of good days. It is good lives that are hard to come by. A life of good days lived in the senses is not enough. The life of sensation is the life of greed; it requires more and more. The life of the spirit requires less and less; time is ample and its passage sweet. Who would call a day spent reading a good day? But a life spent reading – that is a good life.” (pp. 32-33)

Source note: From The Writing Life publisher notes: “Excerpts from this book appeared in Black Warrior Review, Esquire, the New York Times Book Review, Tikkun, and TriQuarterly.”

Source: Editor’s copy – The Writing Life (1989|2013 Harper Perennial reprint) International Standard Book Number (ISBN) 0-06-016516-6

Extended excerpt: [Excerpt from Dillard’s response to the LIFE magazine prompt: ‘What is the meaning of life?’]

“The Old Testament Book of Micah answers the question of why we are here with another: “What doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?” We are here to abet creation and to witness it, to notice each thing so each thing gets noticed. Together we notice not only each mountain’s shadow and each stone on the beach but we notice each other’s beautiful face and complex nature so that creation need not play to an empty house.” (p. 93, column 2)

Source: Editor’s Copy – “The Meaning of Life” (December 1988) LIFE magazine, International Standard Serial No. (ISSN) 0024-3019

Extended excerpt: [Non-fiction] “Why are we reading, if not in hope of beauty laid bare, life heightened and its deepest mystery probed? Can the writer isolate and vivify all in experience that most deeply engages our intellects and our hearts? Can the writer renew our hope for literary forms? Why are we reading if not in hope that the writer will magnify and dramatize our days, will illuminate and inspire us with wisdom, courage, and the possibility of meaningfulness, and will press upon our minds the deepest mysteries, so we may feel again their majesty and power?” (pp. 72-73)

Source note: From The Writing Life publisher notes: “Excerpts from this book appeared in Black Warrior Review, Esquire, the New York Times Book Review, Tikkun, and TriQuarterly.

Source: Editor’s copy – The Writing Life (1989|2013 Harper Perennial reprint) International Standard Book Number (ISBN) 0-06-016516-6

Extended excerpt: [Memoir – Dillard is describing a childhood run down Penn Avenue] “You can’t test courage cautiously, so I ran hard and waved my arms hard, happy.” (p. 108)

Source note: From the An American Childhood publisher note: “Parts of this book have appeared, in different forms, in the New York Times Magazine, American Heritage Magazine, and the New York Times Book Review.”

Source link: Library – An American Childhood (1987 | 1988 First Perennial Library edition) online via Open Library [free subscription service]: https://archive.org/stream/americanchildhoo00dill#page/108/mode/2up/search/courage+cautiously

Re-quote notes: Bradbury repeated versions of his “build your wings” quote a number of times throughout his career. Although the 1990 version featured on our page is one of the more common iterations, Bradbury had spoken & written earlier versions of the idea extending back at least to 1979.

The “Quote Investigator” Garson O’Toole had already tracked down many of the sources listed below a few years before we researched the quote. Although we added some additional details here, overall our search in 2017 aligned with his earlier findings. Please see misattribution notes below & our “Source Link” tab for more information & a link to the Quote Investigator page.

A few examples of Bradbury’s most notable ‘build your wings’ quote variations include:

November 1979 – Bradbury – Book review: “Then the long march from the rim of the cave to the edge of the cliff where we flung ourselves off and built our wings on the way down quickens to focus. It’s all here, in a building, in a book.”

[Source: Ray Bradbury, “Hymn to humanity from the cathedral of high technology” (18 November 1979) Book review of The National Space and Air Museum by C.D.B. Bryan, in Los Angeles Times, The Book Review, p. 1, column 3; in The Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles, CA [p. 316 of full edition file]; online via Newspapers.com [subscription service] www.newspapers.com]

October 1986 – Bradbury – Keynote remarks, cited in regional newspaper: “In his keynote address, author Ray Bradbury declared that if enough people followed their hearts, they could realize their optimistic vision of humanity’s future. Bradbury exhorted his enthusiastic listeners to “jump off the cliff and learn how to make wings on the way down.”

[Source: Ray Bradbury, Keynote address, ‘Future Style’ symposium (18 October 1986) University of California Irvine, Nelson Auditorium; cited in “Future Style’ Slickly Peers Wrong Way,” Charles Solomon, Orange County, CA; Los Angeles Times, The Book Review, p. 1, column 5; in The Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles, CA [p. 122 of full edition file]; online via Newspapers.com [subscription service] www.newspapers.com]

March 1999 – Bradbury – Interview with Luaine Lee, reiterating a shorter version of his 1990 Lee interview remarks: “Well, that’s nonsense. You’re going to miss life. You’ve got to jump off the cliff all the time and build your wings on the way down.”

[Source: “Fantasy writer Ray Bradbury doesn’t let reason restrict him” (22 March 1999) Interview with Luaine Lee, Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service, in St. Louis Post-Dispatch, St. Louis, MO, p. E3, column 1; online via Newspapers.com [subscription service] www.newspapers.com]

Misattribution notes: Bradbury’s quote has been misattributed to authors Kurt Vonnegut, Annie Dillard, and Kobi Yamada.

Late 1990s – Author Kobi Yamada started receiving credit for this paraphrasing of Bradbury’s quote:

“Sometimes you just have to take the leap and build your wings on the way down.”

After 2000 – Author Kurt Vonnegut also started receiving credit for variations of Bradbury’s quote, including this version:

“We have to continually be jumping off cliffs and developing our wings on the way down.”

2005 – Author Annie Dillard was credited with a version of Bradbury’s quote in an Australian newspaper.

Dillard, however, is on record that she never said nor wrote a version of the “jumping off cliffs” quote. To view Dillard’s remarks and additional citation details related to Bradbury’s quote & related misattributions, please see this detailed Quote Investigator page: Garson O’Toole, “Jump Off the Cliff and Build Your Wings on the Way Down,” Quote Investigator, quoteinvestigator.com [See ‘Source Link’ for full 2017 page URL]

Extended excerpt [Bradbury interview remarks. While this version appears to be one of the most frequently cited online, please see ‘Re-quote Notes’ tab to view earlier Bradbury iterations of the same idea.]:

“If we listened to our intellect we’d never have a love affair. We’d never have a friendship. We’d never go into business, because we’d be too cynical: “It’s gonna go wrong.” Or “She’s going to hurt me.” Or, “I’ve had a couple of bad love affairs, so therefore…” Well, that’s nonsense. You’ve got to jump off cliffs all the time and build your wings on the way down.” (p. 1C, columns 2-3)

Source link [1990 Bradbury – Featured quote – first Luaine Lee interview] “Writer lives life at ‘top of my lungs’’ (9 September 1990) The Anniston Star; via Newspapers.com [subscription service]: https://www.newspapers.com/image/106527345/?terms=Bradbury%2B%2B%2B%22couple%2Bof%2Bbad%2Blove%2Baffairs%22

Source link [1979 Bradbury]“Hymn to humanity from the cathedral of high technology” (18 November 1979) Los Angeles Times Book Review; via Newspapers.com [subscription service]: https://www.newspapers.com/image/385273211/?terms=%22wings%2Bon%2Bthe%2Bway%2Bdown%22

Source link [1986 Bradbury]“Future Style’ Slickly Peers Wrong Way” (21 October 1986) The Los Angeles Times; via Newspapers.com [subscription service]: https://www.newspapers.com/image/402530239/?terms=%22jump+off+the+cliff+and+learn+how+to+make+wings+on+the+way%22

Source link [1999 Bradbury – second interview with Luaine Lee] “Fantasy writer Ray Bradbury doesn’t let reason restrict him” (22 March 1999) St. Louis Post-Dispatch, via Newspapers.com [subscription service]: https://www.newspapers.com/image/141956831/?terms=%22wings%2Bon%2Bthe%2Bway%2Bdown%22

Source link [Quote Investigator website, with additional details on the Bradbury misattribution]: “Jump Off the Cliff and Build Your Wings on the Way Down” (c. 2012) Quote Investigator: https://quoteinvestigator.com/2012/06/17/cliff-wings/