I've watched a lot of Rod Serling interviews in my day, but I'd never seen this one until last night.
When I was a young teen, dreaming of becoming a writer, Serling was like a rock star to me, even a punk rock star, long before there was such a thing. He inculcated so much in me at that age. The line "Being a writer is easy, you just thread a piece of paper into your typewriter and you bleed" — I got that from Rod. And the idea of going for it. Getting it down. Not getting hung up on structure or form. Writing from your guts. All Rod.
But mainly, it was the romantic image of the writer, bleeding truth onto a Royal KMM, glass of whisky on one side and an ashtray of spent Chesterfields on the other, that initially inspired me. Not to mention those slim-cut, mod suits.
Image: Screengrab
