Bradbury shared the story of his early poverty — getting married with $8 in the bank, his wife taking a 'vow of poverty' to marry him. When the minister gave back the $5 ceremony fee saying 'You're a writer, aren't you? You're going to need this,' it was both funny and true. Bradbury wrote The Martian Chronicles without knowing what he was doing, selling it and The Illustrated Man on the same day for $1,500 — which paid for his baby and rent for a year and a half. Passion, he insisted, was the engine that made all of it possible.