Ray Bradbury: Trending quotes (page 15)

“Oh, God, children are children, old women are old women, and nothing in between. They can’t imagine a change they can’t see.”

Ray Bradbury book Dandelion Wine

Source: Dandelion Wine (1957), p. 74

Women , God , Children , Imagination

“I am not a science fiction writer. I am a fantasy writer. But the label got put on me and stuck.”

Ray Bradbury

Ray Bradbury interview http://lists.topica.com/lists/gsn-newsday-list/read/message.html?sort=t&mid=911788456 March 23, 2005

Science

“I know you've heard it a thousand times before. But it's true — hard work pays off. If you want to be good, you have to practice, practice, practice. If you don't love something, then don't do it.”

Ray Bradbury

As quoted in Ray Bradbury: The Uncensored Biography (2006) by Gene Beley, p. 284

Love , Time

“A single face turned upward toward all Time
One flesh, one ecstasy, one peace.”

Ray Bradbury

Christ, Old Student in a New School (1972)

Peace , Time

“Video games are a waste of time for men with nothing else to do. Real brains don't do that. On occasion? Sure. As relaxation? Great. But not full time— And a lot of people are doing that. And while they're doing that, I'll go ahead and write another novel.”

Ray Bradbury

Salon.com (29 August 2001)

Men , People , Game , Time

“More murders are committed at ninety-two degrees Fahrenheit than any other temperature. Over one hundred, it’s too hot to move. Under ninety, cool enough to survive. But right at ninety-two degrees lies the apex of irritability, everything is itches and hair and sweat and cooked pork. The brain becomes a rat rushing around a red-hot maze. The least thing, a word, a look, a sound, the drop of a hair and—irritable murder.”

Ray Bradbury book The October Country

Touched With Fire (1954)
The October Country (1955)

Cooking

“He stood very straight and thought of nothing, or at least thought of thinking nothing.”

Ray Bradbury book The October Country

Homecoming (1946)
The October Country (1955)

Thinking

“Don't tell me how to write my novel. Don't tell me you've got a better ending for it. I have no time for that.”

Ray Bradbury

Playboy interview (1996)

Time

“Leave off losings, and take on winnings, Erase all mortal ends, give birth to only new beginnings,
In a billion years of morning and a billion years of sleep.”

Ray Bradbury

Christ, Old Student in a New School (1972)

Birth , Sleep

“Kindness and intelligence are the preoccupations of age. Being cruel and thoughtless is far more fascinating when you’re twenty.”

Ray Bradbury book Dandelion Wine

Source: Dandelion Wine (1957), p. 147

Age , Intelligence

“I believe,” said the first lady, “that our souls are in our hands. For we do everything to the world with our hands. Sometimes I think we don’t use our hands half enough; it’s certain we don’t use our heads.”

Ray Bradbury book The Golden Apples of the Sun

Embroidery (1951)
The Golden Apples of the Sun (1953)

World , Soul , Thinking

“Is it because we're having so much fun at home we've forgotten the world? Is it because we're so rich and the rest of the world's so poor and we just don't care if they are? I've heard rumors; the world is starving, but we're well fed. Is it true, the world works hard and we play? Is that why we're hated so much?”

Ray Bradbury book Fahrenheit 451

Fahrenheit 451 (1953)

Hate , World , Home

“In science fiction, we dream. In order to colonize in space, to rebuild our cities, which are so far out of whack, to tackle any number of problems, we must imagine the future, including the new technologies that are required.”

Ray Bradbury

Playboy interview (1996)

Dreams , Imagination , Problem , Science

“THE OCTOBER COUNTRY …that country where it is always turning late in the year. That country where the hills are fog and the rivers are mist; where noons go quickly, dusks and twilights linger, and midnights stay. That country composed in the main of cellars, sub-cellars, coal-bins, closets, attics, and pantries faced away from the sun. That country whose people are autumn people, thinking only autumn thoughts. Whose people passing at night on the empty walks sound like rain…”

Ray Bradbury book The October Country

Epigraph
The October Country (1955)

People , Autumn , Thinking , Sun

“Science and religion have to go hand in hand with the mystery, because there's a certain point beyond which you say, "There are no answers."”

Ray Bradbury

Playboy interview (1996)

Religion , Science

“The rocket stood in the cold winter morning, making summer with every breath of its mighty exhausts. The rocket made climates, and summer lay for a brief moment upon the land.”

Ray Bradbury book The Martian Chronicles

Rocket Summer (1950)
The Martian Chronicles (1950)

Winter , Summer

“I have something to fight for and live for; that makes me a better killer. I’ve got what amounts to a religion, now.”

Ray Bradbury book The Martian Chronicles

—And the Moon Be Still as Bright (1948)
The Martian Chronicles (1950)

Religion , Fight

““And what happened next?”
“Silence happened next. God, it was beautiful.””

Ray Bradbury book The Golden Apples of the Sun

The Murderer (1953)
The Golden Apples of the Sun (1953)

God , Beauty , Silence

“I’m not afraid. When you live as long as I’ve lived, you lose that, too. I never liked lobster in my life, and mainly because I’d never tried it. On my eightieth birthday I tried it. I can’t say I’m greatly excited over lobster still, but I have no doubt as to its taste now, and I don’t fear it. I dare say death will be a lobster, too, and I can come to terms with it.”

Ray Bradbury book Dandelion Wine

Source: Dandelion Wine (1957), p. 150

Life , Death , Fear , Birthday

“Only six months ago, I discovered that, over the years, some cubby-hole editors at Ballantine Books, fearful of contaminating the young, had, bit by bit, censored some 75 separate sections from the novel. Students, reading the novel which, after all, deals with the censorship and book-burning in the future, wrote to tell me of this exquisite irony. Judy-Lynn Del Rey, one of the new Ballantine editors, is having the entire book reset and republished this summer with all the damns and hells back in place.”

Ray Bradbury book Fahrenheit 451

Fahrenheit 451 (1953), Coda (1979)

Books , Fear , Hell , Reading