Inspiring Ray Bradbury Quotes

Words of Wonder: 19 Awe-Inspiring Ray Bradbury Quotes

By MEAGHAN WAGNER




Bradbury’s claim to fame is, of course, Fahrenheit 451, a chilling dystopian novel depicting an America in which all books are banned and any that are found are burned. He also wrote extensively both before and after its 1953 publication, gaining fame for works like The Martian Chronicles and The Illustrated Man, in addition to his work writing screenplays and TV scripts. From his youngest years, he lived a life saturated in words and creativity, even resorting to writing some of his earliest stories (at age eleven) on butcher paper during the Great Depression. And by the time he passed away in 2012, he had been awarded both a National Medal of Arts in 2004 and the National Book Foundation’s Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters in 2000.Threaded throughout his writing and his interviews is an unassailable sense of wonder, which, coupled with his boundless imagination, strikes a chord with his loyal readership. So in honor of his long and distinguished career, we’ve pulled together nineteen of our favorite thought-provoking, imaginative Ray Bradbury quotes.1. “Go to the edge of the cliff and jump off. Build your wings on the way down.” (Brown Daily Herald, 1995)2. “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.” (Fahrenheit 451)3. “Life is like underwear, should be changed twice a day.” (A Graveyard for Lunatics,1990)4. “You must write every single day of your life… You must lurk in libraries and climb the stacks like ladders to sniff books like perfumes and wear books like hats upon your crazy heads… may you be in love every day for the next 20,000 days. And out of that love, remake a world.” (As quoted in Advice to Writers by Jon Winokur, 2000)5. “Mysteries abound where most we seek for answers.” (“All flesh is one: what matter scores?” When Elephants Last In The Dooryard Bloomed, 1973)6. “Don’t think. Thinking is the enemy of creativity. It’s self-conscious and anything self-conscious is lousy. You can’t “try” to do things. You simply “must” do things.” (Unsourced)7. “I wonder how many men, hiding their youngness, rise as I do, Saturday mornings, filled with the hope that Bugs Bunny, Yosemite Sam and Daffy Duck will be there waiting as our one true always and forever salvation?” (“Why Cartoons Are Forever”, Los Angeles Times, 1989)8. “My job is to help you fall in love.” (Speech at Brown University, 1995)9. “Disbelief is catching. It rubs off on people.” (“A Miracle of Rare Device”, Playboy, 1962)10. “I believe the universe created us — we are an audience for miracles. In that sense, I guess, I’m religious.” (AARP Magazine, July-August 2008)11. “People ask me to predict the future, when all I want to do is prevent it. Better yet, build it.” (Beyond 1984: The People Machines, 1979)12. “I write fantasy. The only science fiction I have written is Fahrenheit 451. It’s the art of the possible. Science fiction is the art of the possible. It could happen. It has happened.” (A Conversation with Ray Bradbury – Point Loma Nazarene University, Writer’s Symposium By The Sea; April, 2001)13. “We were put here as witnesses to the miracle of life. We see the stars, and we want them. We are beholden to give back to the universe…. If we make landfall on another star system, we become immortal.” (Speech to National School Board Association, 1995)14. “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.” (As quoted in Ray Bradbury: The Uncensored Biography)15. “We must move into the universe. Mankind must save itself. We must escape the danger of war and politics. We must become astronauts and go out into the universe and discover the God in ourselves.” (As quoted in “Sci-fi legend “Ray Bradbury on God, ‘monsters and angels'” by John Blake)16. “If you can’t read and write you can’t think. Your thoughts are dispersed if you don’t know how to read and write. You’ve got to be able to look at your thoughts on paper and discover what a fool you were.” (Salon.com, 2001)17. “My stories run up and bite me in the leg — I respond by writing down everything that goes on during the bite. When I finish, the idea lets go and runs off.” (Introduction to The Stories of Ray Bradbury)18. “To hell with more. I want better.” (Beyond 1984: The People Machines, 1979)19. “If you’re reluctant to weep, you won’t live a full and complete life.” (Personal lessons from futurist Ray Bradbury on crying, escaping, laughing, by Mick Mortlock)