“God, how impossible life is without money. Nothing can ever overcome it, it's everything when it's anything. How can I write in peace with endless worries of money, money, money? (“Disappearing Act”)”
Richard Matheson was born in Allendale, New Jersey, the son of Norwegian immigrant parents. He was raised in Brooklyn and started writing at age eight. He graduated from Brooklyn Technical High School in 1943. He served as an infantry soldier in World War II. He earned his bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Missouri in 1949. His first short story, "Born of Man and Woman," appeared in the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction in 1950. Between 1950 and 1971, he wrote dozens of stories, frequently blending elements of science fiction, horror and fantasy. In 1951 he moved to California and became a screenwriter, writing episodes for The Twilight Zone, Lawman, and Star Trek, and screenplays for horror movies such as The Devil Rides Out and Steven Spielberg's Duel. During the 1950s he published a handful of Western stories. His autobiographical war novel The Beardless Warriors was published in 1960.
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Memorable Words
“God, how impossible life is without money. Nothing can ever overcome it, it's everything when it's anything. How can I write in peace with endless worries of money, money, money? (“Disappearing Act”)”
“I'm sitting in my office trying to squeeze a story from my head. It is that kind of morning when you feel like melting the typewriter into a bar of steel and clubbing yourself to death with it. (“Advance Notice”)”
“God help me, he thought. God help all us poor wretches who could create and find we must lose our hearts for it because we cannot afford to spend our time at it. (“Mad House”)”
“Very well then! I'll write, write write. He let the words soak into his mind and displace all else. A man had a choice, after all. He devoted his life to his work or to his wife and children and home. It could not be combined; not in this day and age. In this insane world where God was second to in...”
“Miró hacia la biblioteca. Aquella sabiduría no calmaría nunca su fuego; siglos y siglos de palabras no podían satisfacer aquel deseo imperativo e irracional.”
“Because there was only one thing worse than dying. And that was knowing you were going to die. And where. And how. (“Death Ship”)”
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