The Wisdom of Ray Bradbury

June 11, 2012

Ray Bradbury passed away last week. His stories made the world a brighter, madder, wiser place. Now, the world is a little sadder for the loss of a great storyteller. But the stories and words themselves live on.

Here is an assortment of quotes from Bradbury.

1. "Anything you dream is fiction and anything you accomplish is science. The whole history of mankind is nothing but science fiction."
2. "I spent three days a week for ten years educating myself in the public library, and it's better than college. People should educate themselves - you can get a complete education for no money. At the end of ten years, I had read every book in the library and I'd written a thousand stories."
3. "There must be something in books, something we can't imagine, to make a woman stay in a burning house; there must be something there. You don't stay for nothing." - Fahrenheit 451
4. "The ability to 'fantasize' is the ability to survive. It's wonderful to speak about this subject because there has been so many wrong-headed people dealing with it ... The so-called realists are trying to drive us insane, and I refuse to be driven insane ... We survive by fantasizing. Take that away from us and the whole damned human race goes done the drain."
5. "It is good to renew one's wonder." said the philosopher. "Space travel has again made children of us all." - The Martian Chronicles
6. "All of the good, weird stories I've written are based on things I've dredged out of my subconscious. That's the real stuff. Everything else is fake."
7. "I like to watch people. Sometimes I ride the subway all day long and look at them and listen to them. I just want to figure out who they are and what they want and where they're going"
8. "Stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you."
9. "Love what you do and do what you love. Don't listen to anyone else who tells you not to do it. You do what you want, what you love. Imagination should be the center of your life."
10. "Most of us can't rush around, talk to everyone, know all the cities of the world, we haven't time, money, or that many friends. The things you're looking for, Montag, are in the world, but the only way the average chap will ever see ninety-nine percent of them is in a book." Fahrenheit 451
11. "Without libraries what have we? No past and no future."

Sally S.
Grandview Branch