Once you let yourself begin to be grown-up, you face a world full of problems you can't solve. The politicians and specialists - adults, all - have a hard enough time trying to figure out where to look. It doesn't have to be that way. The greatest solutions in society are reached by corporate thinking, ruled by a motive to either make a profit or go out of business.
Ray BradburyOh God, the terrible tyranny of the majority. We all have our harps to play. And it's up to you to know with which ear you'll listen.
Ray BradburyLone at night, when I was twelve years old, I looked at the planet Mars and I said, 'Take me home!' And the planet Mars took me home, and I never came back. So I've written every day in the last 75 years. I've never stopped writing.
Ray BradburyWe are all . . . children of this universe. Not just Earth, or Mars, or this system, but the whole grand fireworks. And if we are interested in Mars at all, it is only because we wonder over our past and worry terribly about our possible future.
Ray BradburyIf you have moved over vast territories and dared to love silly things, you will have learned even from the most primitive items collected and put aside in your life.
Ray BradburyPeople who take books on sex to bed become frigid. You get self-conscious. You can't think a story. You can't think, "I shall do a story to improve mankind." Well, it's nonsense. All the great stories, all the really worthwhile plays, are emotional experiences. If you have to ask yourself whether or not you love a girl or you love a boy, forget it. You don't. A story is the same way. You either feel a story and need to write it, or you better not write it.
Ray BradburyLike every beginner, I have thought you could beat, pummel and thrash an idea into existence. Under such treatment, of course, any decent idea folds up its paws, turns on its back, fixes its eyes on eternity, and dies.
Ray BradburyI just want someone to hear what I have to say. And maybe if I talk long enough, it’ll make sense.
Ray BradburyCollecting facts is important. Knowledge is important. But if you don't have an imagination to use the knowledge, civilization is nowhere.
Ray BradburyA science fiction story is just an attempt to solve a problem that exists in the world, sometimes a moral problem, sometimes a physical or social or theological problem.
Ray BradburyTo feed your Muse, then, you should always have been hungry about life since you were a child. If not, it is a little late to start.
Ray BradburyFar away, in the meadow, shadows flickered in the Mirror's Maze, as if parts of someone's life, yet unborn, were trapped there, waiting to be lived.
Ray BradburyStuff your eyes with wonder, live as if you'd drop dead in ten seconds. See the world. It's more fantastic than any dream made or paid for in factories.
Ray BradburyLast night I thought about all the kerosene I've used in the past ten years. And I thought about books. And for the first time I realized that a man was behind each one of the books. A man had to think them up. A man had to take a long time to put them down on paper. And I'd never even thought that thought before...It took some man a lifetime maybe to put some of his thoughts down, looking around at the world and life, and then I come along in two minutes and boom! it's all over.
Ray BradburyRemember, the firemen are rarely necessary. The public itself stopped reading of its own accord.
Ray BradburyYou're not like the others. I've seen a few; I know. When I talk, you look at me. When I said something about the moon, you looked at the moon.
Ray BradburyThe magic is only in what books say, how they stitched the patches of the universe together into one garment for us.
Ray BradburyThe world doesn't give a damn about you unless you do something. Those are the rules; I didn't make them. If you are lazy, if you don't get the work that you love done, the world won't care if you die tomorrow and go into the grave and are gone and forgotten forever.
Ray BradburyYou ask Why to a lot of things and you wind up very unhappy indeed, if you keep at it. The poor girl's better off dead
Ray Bradbury"That's sad," said Montag, quietly, "because all we put into it is hunting and finding and killing. What a shame if that's all it can ever know."
Ray BradburyThe only good writing is intuitive writing. It would be a big bore if you knew where it was going. It has to be exciting, instantaneous and it has to be a surprise. Then it all comes blurting out and it’s beautiful. I’ve had a sign by my typewriter for 25 years now which reads, ‘DON’T THINK!’
Ray BradburyI don’t write things to benefit the world. If it happens that they do, swell. I didn’t set out to do that. I set out to have a hell of a lot of fun.
Ray BradburyDon’t try to write a novel. Write short stories and then figure out how to connect them.
Ray BradburyI feel like I own all the kids in the world because, since I've never grown up myself, all my books are automatically for children.
Ray BradburyThe best scientist is open to experience and begins with romance - the idea that anything is possible.
Ray BradburyDo you ever read any of the books you burn?" He laughed. "That's against the law!" "Oh. Of course.
Ray BradburyScience fiction is any idea that occurs in the head and doesn't exist yet, but soon will, and will change everything for everybody, and nothing will ever be the same again. As soon as you have an idea that changes some small part of the world you are writing science fiction. It is always the art of the possible, never the impossible.
Ray BradburyScreenplays are not writing. They're a fake form of writing. It's a lot of dialogue and very little atmosphere. Very little description. Very little character work. It's very dangerous. You'll never learn to write.
Ray BradburyWhen I finished [writing it], I was crying. I knew at long last, after ten years of trying, I had written something good.
Ray Bradbury