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Ray Bradbury

Ray Bradbury Quotes

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Famous Ray Bradbury Quotes

“...if you are writing without zest, without gusto, without love, without fun, you are only half a writer. It means you are so busy keeping one eye on the commercial market, or one ear peeled for the avant-garde coterie, that you are not being yourself. You don't even know yourself. For the first thing a writer should be is-- excited. He should be a thing of fevers and enthusiasms.”

IfsKnowsShouldWritingFirstsMeanEyeFunHalfEarsBusyExcitedEnthusiasmBeing YourselfKnow YourselfFeverWithout LoveAvant GardeZestGustoNot Being Yourself
Book:Zen in the Art of Writing
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“Garrett," said Stendahl, "do you know why I've done this to you? Because you burned Mr. Poe's books without really reading them. You took other people's advice that they needed burning. Otherwise you'd have realized what I was going to do to you when we came down here a moment ago. Ignorance is fatal, Mr. Garrett.”

PeopleKnowsSaidBookDoneMomentsReadingAdviceIgnoranceNeededBurningDo You KnowBurnedMartian Chronicles
Book:Bradbury Stories
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“We're all fools," said Clemens, "all the time. It's just we're a different kind each day. We think, I'm not a fool today. I've learned my lesson. I was a fool yesterday but not this morning. Then tomorrow we find out that, yes, we were a fool today too. I think the only way we can grow and get on in this world is to accept the fact we're not perfect and live accordingly.”

ThinkingWorldWayKindSaidDifferentFactsTodayGrowsPerfectAcceptingMorningThis WorldFoolTomorrowLessonsYesterdayI've LearnedEach DayDifferent KindsNot Perfect
Author:Ray Bradbury
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“Cram them full of non-combustible data, chock them so damned full of 'facts' they feel stuffed, but absolutely 'brilliant' with information. Then they’ll feel they’re thinking, they’ll get a sense of motion without moving. And they’ll be happy, because facts of that sort don’t change. Don’t give them any slippery stuff like philosophy or sociology to tie things up with. That way lies melancholy.”

ThinkingWayGivingFeelsPhilosophyFactsMovingLyingStuffInformationBrilliantDataTiesMelancholySociologyDon't ChangeSlippery
Book:Fahrenheit 451
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“The merry-go-round was running, yes, but... It was running backward. The small calliope inside the carousel machinery rattle-snapped its nervous-stallion shivering drums, clashed its harvest-moon cymbals, toothed its castanets, and throatily choked and sobbed its reeds, whistles, and baroque flutes.”

RunningMoonRoundsNervousHarvestMachineryMerryReedsFlutesBaroqueStallionsMerry Go RoundCymbalsCarouselsHarvest Moon
Book:Something Wicked This Way Comes: A Novel
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“I am a librarian. I discovered me in the library. I went to find me in the library. Before I fell in love with libraries, I was just a six-year-old boy. The library fueled all of my curiosities, from dinosaurs to ancient Egypt. When I graduated from high school in 1938, I began going to the library three nights a week. I did this every week for almost ten years and finally, in 1947, around the time I got married, I figured I was done. So I graduated from the library when I was twenty-seven. I discovered that the library is the real school.”

YearsRealDoneSchoolNightThreeBoysWeekTenSixMarriedHigh SchoolTwentiesSevenCuriosityLibraryAncientEgyptFind MeLibrarianDinosaursAncient EgyptSix Year Olds
Author:Ray Bradbury
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“Grandfather's been dead all these years, but if you lifted my skull, by God, in the convolutions of my brain you'd find the big ridges of his thumbprint. He touched me. As I said earlier, he was a sculptor. 'I hate a Roman named Status Quo!' he said to me. 'Stuff your eyes with wonder,' he said, '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.”

IfsWorldYearsMadeSaidDreamBigsEyeHateStuffBrainWonderTenI HatePaidFantasticTouchedSecondsFactoriesGrandfatherStatus QuoSkullsSculptorsRidgesThumbprints
Book:Fahrenheit 451: A Novel
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“Why love the woman who is your wife? Her nose breathes in the air of a world that I know; therefore I love that nose. Her ears hear music I might sing half the night through; therefore I love her ears. Her eyes delight in seasons of the land; and so I love those eyes. Her tongue knows quince, peach, chokeberry, mint and lime; I love to hear it speaking. Because her flesh knows heat, cold, affliction, I know fire, snow, and pain. Shared and once again shared experience.”

KnowsWorldMightEyePainNightHalfFireWifeAirLandColdEarsSeasonsDelightTongueBreatheFleshSnowNosesHeatHer EyesAfflictionPeachesMintLimesShared ExperiencesQuince
Book:Something Wicked This Way Comes: A Novel
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“Sunsets are loved because they vanish. Flowers are loved because they go. The dogs of the field and the cats of the kitchen are loved because soon they must depart. These are not the sole reasons, but at the heart of morning welcomes and afternoon laughters is the promise of farewell. In the gray muzzle of an old dog we see goodbye. In the tired face of an old friend we read long journeys beyond returns.”

HeartLongReasonFacesMorningJourneyDogFieldsFlowerReturnPromiseLaughterCatTiredKitchenGoodbyeSunsetGrayAfternoonSoleFarewellOld FriendsOld DogLong JourneyMuzzle
Author:Ray Bradbury
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“Please, please, help me grow to be like them, the ones'll soon be here, who never grow old, can't die, that's what they say, can't die, no matter what, or maybe they died a long time ago but Cecy calls, and Mother and Father call, and Grandmere who only whispers, and now they're coming and I'm nothing, not like them who pass through walls and live in trees or live underneath until seventeen-year rains flood them up and out, and the ones who run in packs, let me be the one! If they live forever, why not me?”

IfsYearsLongMatterHelpingRunningMotherDiesFatherGrowsForeverTreeWallPleaseLong TimeRainLet MeDiedNo Matter WhatHelp MeWhy NotFloodPacksLong Time AgoLive ForeverSeventeenMother And Father
Author:Ray Bradbury
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“Time is so strange and life is twice as strange. You must promise me not to live to be too old, William. It if is at all convenient, die before you're fifty. It my take a bit of doing. But I advise this is simply because there is no telling when another Helen Loomis might be born. It would be dreadful, wouldn't it, if you lived on to be very very old and some afternoon in 1999 walked down Main street and saw me standing there, aged twenty-one, and the whole thing out of balance again?”

IfsWholeMightWould BeLife IsDiesBitsBornSawsStreetsStrangeBalancePromiseStandingTwentiesFiftyAfternoonAdviseConvenientTwenty OneStanding ThereHelenMain StreetPromise Me
Author:Ray Bradbury
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“There where hundreds of graves. There where hundreds of women. There were hundreds of daughters. There were hundreds of sons. And hundreds upon hundreds upon thousands of candles. The whole graveyard was one swarm of candleshine as if a population of fireflies had heard of a Grand Conglomeration and had flown here to settle in and flame upon the stones and light the brown faces and the dark eyes and the black hair.”

IfsWholeLightEyeFacesBlackDarkHeardSonHairDaughterStonesPopulationGravesSettlingFlamesBrownCandleGraveyardFireflySwarmsBlack HairDark Eyes
Book:The Halloween Tree
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“You'll be found, your nickels, dimes and Indian-heads fused by electroplating. Abe Lincolns melted into Miss Columbias, eagles plucked raw on the backs of quarters, all run to quicksilver in your jeans. More! Any boy hit by lightning, lift his lid and there on his eyeball, pretty as the Lord's Prayer on a pin, find the last scene the boy ever saw! A box-Brownie photo, by God, of that fire climbing down the sky to blow you like a penny whistle, suck your soul back up along the bright stair!”

SoulRunningLastsFoundPrayerLordBoysFireSawsSkyMissingSceneBlowBoxesYour SoulIndianLiftsClimbingQuartersLightningJeansEaglesPinsStairsPenniesDimesColumbiaNickelsEyeballsBrowniesAbe
Book:Something Wicked This Way Comes
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“The wind outside nested in each tree, prowled the sidewalks in invisible treads like unseen cats. Tom Skelton shivered. Anyone could see that the wind was a special wind this night, and the darkness took on a special feel because it was All Hallows' Eve. Everything seemed cut from soft black velvet or gold or orange velvet. Smoke panted up out of a thousand chimneys like the plumes of funeral parades. From kitchen windows drifted two pumpkin smells: gourds being cut, pies being baked.”

FeelsTwoNightBlackDarknessCuttingTreeSpecialWindThousandCatWindowGoldSmellInvisibleSmokeKitchenFuneralTomsPieUnseenOrangeParadesVelvetSidewalkPumpkinChimneysGourds
Author:Ray Bradbury
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“...We're allotted a little space on earth and that we survive in that wilderness that can take back what it has given, as easily as blowing its breath on us or sending the sea to tell us we are not so big. When we forget how close the wilderness is in the night, my grandpa said, someday it will come in and get us, for we will have forgotten how terrible and real it can be.”

LittlesSaidRealBigsEarthNightGivenSpaceForgetSeaTerribleBreathsForgottenSomedayWildernessGrandpa
Book:Fahrenheit 451
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