Quotessence
Home / Authors / Ray Bradbury
Ray Bradbury

Ray Bradbury Quotes

Writer

Filter quotes by topic

AllWritingIfsPeopleBookThinkingKnowsWayWorldYearsScience Fiction

Famous Ray Bradbury Quotes

“I've written about 2,000 short stories; I've only published 300 and I feel I'm still learning. Any man who keeps working is not a failure. He may not be a great writer, but if he applies the old fashioned virtues of hard, constant labor, he'll eventually make some kind of career for himself as a writer. Ray Bradbury, 1967 interview (Doing the Math - that means for every story he sold, he wrote six "un-publishable" ones. Keep typing!)”

IfsMenFeelsKindMayMeanStillsHardStoriesCareersVirtueWrittenSixLaborConstantMathInterviewsRaysShort StoryOld FashionedGreat WritersTypingBradbury
Author:Ray Bradbury
Create image

“Now let's take up the minorities in our civilisation, shall we? Bigger the population, the more minorities. Don't step on the toes of the dog-lovers, the cat-lovers, doctors, lawyers, merchants, chiefs, Mormons, Baptists, Unitarians, second-generation Chinese, Swedes, Italians, Germans, Texans, Brooklynites, Irishmen, people from Oregon or Mexico. The people in this book, this play, this TV serial are not meant to represent any actual painters, cartographers, mechanics anywhere. The bigger your market, Montag, the less you handle controversy, remember that!”

PeopleBookPlayRememberStepsGenerationsDogTvsLoversCatDoctorsBiggerPopulationLawyerHandlePainterChiefsChineseMinoritiesCensorshipMexicoToesMechanicControversyCivilisationBaptistsMerchantsSerialsDog LoverOregonTexanIrishmenCat LoverUnitarian
Author:Ray Bradbury
Create image

“Forgive, I hope you won't be upset, but when I was a boy I used to look up and see you behind your desk, so near but far away, and, how can I say this, I used to think that you were Mrs. God, and that the library was a whole world, and that no matter what part of the world or what people or thing I wanted to see and read, you'd find and give it to me.”

PeopleThinkingWorldGivingLooksMatterWholeWantedUsedBehindsBoysNo Matter WhatForgivingLibraryWhole WorldUpsetLook UpFar AwayDesks
Author:Ray Bradbury
Create image

“And there, row upon row, with the soft gleam of flowers opened at morning, with the light of this June sun glowing through a faint skin of dust, would stand the dandelion wine. Peer through it at the wintry day - the snow melted to grass, the trees were reinhabitated with bird, leaf, and blossoms like a continent of butterflies breathing on the wind. And peering through, color sky from iron to blue. Hold summer in your hand, pour summer in a glass, a tiny glass of course, the smallest tingling sip for children; change the season in your veins by raising glass to lip and tilting summer in”

ChildrenHandsLightCoursesMorningSunTreeSkyColorWindFlowerSummerBirdSkinsSeasonsBlueWineLipsGlassesTinySnowDustBreathingGrassIronButterflyContinentsSmallestPeersLeafsVeinsJuneGlowingGleamDandelions
Book:Dandelion Wine
Create image

“I would not see our candle blown out in the wind. It is a small thing, this dear gift of life handed us mysteriously out of immensity. I would not have that gift expire... If I seem to be beating a dead horse again and again, I must protest: No! I am beating, again and again, living man to keep him awake and move his limbs and jump his mind... What's the use of looking at Mars through a telescope, sitting on panels, writing books, if it isn't to guarantee, not just the survival of mankind, but mankind surviving forever!”

IfsMenWritingMindBookUseSeemsMovingScienceForeverMankindWindSurvivalSittingHorseDearAwakeGuaranteesProtestCandleAgain And AgainMarsLimbsSmall ThingsSurvivingWriting A BookStar GazingTelescopesImmensityGifts Of LifeBeating A Dead Horse
Author:Ray Bradbury
Create image

“Important thing is not the me that's lying here, but the me that's sitting on the edge of the bed looking back at me, and the me that's downstairs cooking supper, or out in the garage under the car, or in the library reading. All the new parts, they count. I'm not really dying today. No person ever died that had a family.”

PersonsImportantTodayDeathLyingReadingDyingCarBedSittingDiedImportant ThingsCookingLibraryEdgesLooking BackGarageSupperSitting On The EdgeLying Here
Book:The Stories of Ray Bradbury
Create image

“There is more than one way to burn a book. And the world is full of people running about with lit matches. Every minority, be it Baptist/Unitarian, Irish/Italian/Octogenarian/Zen Buddhist, Zionist/Seventh-day Adventist, Women's Lib/Republican, Mattachine/FourSquareGospel feels it has the will, the right, the duty to douse the kerosene, light the fuse. Every dimwit editor who sees himself as the source of all dreary blanc-mange plain porridge unleavened literature, licks his guillotine and eyes the neck of any author who dares to speak above a whisper or write above a nursery rhyme.”

PeopleWorldWayFeelsWritingBookLightEyeRunningLiteratureSpeakDutySourceRepublicanDareBuddhistOne WayNecksMinoritiesEditorsItalianCensorshipRhymeLitBaptistsNurseryZionistDrearyFuseCensoredCensoringGuillotineBanned BooksCensorship In BooksPorridgeBook BanningUnitarianCensoring BooksNursery RhymesZen BuddhistDimwits
Book:Fahrenheit 451: A Novel
Create image

“Remember: Plot is no more than footprints left in the snow after your characters have run by on their way to incredible destinations. Plot is observed after the fact rather than before. It cannot precede action. It is the chart that remains when an action is through. That is all Plot ever should be. It is human desire let run, running, and reaching a goal. It cannot be mechanical. It can only be dynamic.”

WayShouldHumansCharacterFactsRunningActionRememberDesireLeftGoalRemainsIncrediblesSnowReachingPlotDestinationFootprintReaching Goals
Author:Ray Bradbury
Create image