Quotes from Ray Bradbury

As a final note, in these days when we worry and we argue about whether ebooks are real books, I love how broad Ray Bradbury's definition of a book is at the end, when he points out that we should not judge our books by their covers, and that some books exist between covers that are perfectly people-shaped.)

Books were only one type of recepticle where we stored a lot of things we were afraid we might forget.There is nothing magical in them, at all.The magic is only in what books say, how they stitches the patches of the universe together into one garment for us.

And they were all, when their souls grew warm, poets.

A la gente de color no le gusta El negrito Sambo? Quémalo. ¿Los blancos se sienten incómodos con La cabaña del tío Tom? Quémalo. ¿Alguien escribió una obra acerca del tabaco y el cáncer pulmonar? ¿Los fumadores están afligidos? Quema la obra. Serenidad, Montag. Paz, Montag. Fuera los conflictos. Mejor

the wonderful thing about man; he never gets so discouraged or disgusted that he gives up doing it all over again, because he knows very well it is important and worth the doing.

Ah, no, ah, no. There, senor, you would be wrong. Knowing that after the first year the rent is liable not to be paid, we bury the poorest two feet down. It is less work, you understand? of course, we must judge by the family who owns a body.

Do you ever read any of the books you burn?' He laughed. 'That's against the law!' 'Oh. Of course.' 'It's fine work. Monday burn Millay, Wednesday Whitman, Friday Faulkner, burn 'em to ashes, then burn the ashes. That's our official slogan.' They

Nothing extraordinary about me except I'm fifty-four, which is always extraordinary to the man inside it.

The bigger your market, Montag, the less you handle controversy, remember that! All

Le téléviseur est réel. Il est présent. Il a ses dimensions. Il vous dit ce qu'il faut penser, vous le hurle à la figure. Il doit avoir raison. Il semble avoir raison. Il vous pousse à un tel rythme vers ses conclusions que votre esprit n'a pas le temps de s'écrier: C'est idiot.

Can't you recognize the human in the inhuman?' 'I'd much rather recognize the inhuman in the human.

La dignité de la vérité se perd dans l'excès de ses protestations

I libri erano soltanto una specie di veicolo, di ricettacolo in cui riponevamo tutte le cose che temevamo di poter dimenticare. Non c'è nulla di magico, nei libri; la magia sta solo in ciò che essi dicono, nel modo in cui hanno cucito le pezze dell'Universo per mettere insieme così un mantello onde rivestirci.

More sports for everyone, group spirit, fun, and you don't have to think, eh? Organize and organize and super organize super-super sports. More cartoons in books. More pictures. The mind drinks less and less. Impatience. Highways full of crowds going somewhere, somewhere, somewhere, nowhere. The gasoline refugee. Towns turn into motels, people in nomadic surges from place to place, following the moon tides, living tonight in the room where you slept this noon and I the night before.

Si no quieres que un hombre se sienta políticamente desgraciado, no le enseñes dos aspectos de una misma cuestión, para preocuparle; enséñale sólo uno. O, mejor aún, no le des ninguno.

Three things are missing... ...Quality, texture of information... leisure

Radio. Television. Things began to have mass.' Montag sat in bed, not moving. 'And because they had mass, they became simpler,' said Beatty. 'Once, books appealed to a few people, here, there, everywhere. They could afford to be different. The world was roomy. But then the world got full of eyes and elbows and mouths. Double, triple, quadruple population. Films and radios, magazines, books leveled down to a sort of paste pudding norm, do you follow me?

There are so many real people around, telling children what and how to do, that a boy has to run off down a beach, even if it's only in his head, to get by himself in his own world.

me gusta observar a la gente. A veces, me paso el día entero en el metro, y los contemplo, los escucho. Sólo deseo saber qué son, qué desean y adónde van. (...) A veces me deslizo a hurtadillas y escucho en el metro. O en las cafeterías. Y, ¿sabe qué? - ¿Qué? - La gente no habla de nada.

If this goes on, all communication everywhere will be through text messages or computers, and direct speech between two people, without a machine, will be outlawed.)

There was a silence gathered all about that fire and the silence was in the men's faces, and time was there, time enough to sit by this rusting track under the trees, and look at the world and turn it over with the eyes, as if it were held to the center of the bonfire, a piece of steel these men were all shaping.

They walked over to the body, thinking that perhaps they could still save the man's life. They couldn't believe that there wasn't some way to help the man. It was the natural act of men who have not accepted death until they have touched it and turned it over and made plans to bury it or leave it there for the jungle to bury in an hour of quick growth.

Why are you crying? he asked. I don't know, I don't know, but I can't help it. I'm sad and I don't know why, I cry and I don't know why, but I'm crying.

Ei, si lucrurile produse in serie au devenit mai simple. Odinioara, cartile ii interesau doar pe cativa oameni, risipiti ici, colo. Le dadea mana sa fie altfel decat ceilalti. Lumea era incapatoare. Dar dupa aceea lumea s-a umplut de ochi, de coate, de guri. Populatia a crescut de doua ori, de trei ori, de patru ori. Filmele si radioul, revistele si cartile au devenit toate o apa si-un pamant, un fel de coca facuta dupa aceeasi reteta.