Quotes from Ray Bradbury

I don't want any Halloween parties here tomorrow. Don't want anyone saying anything sweet about me; I said it all in my time and my pride. I've tasted every victual and danced every dance; now there's one last tart I haven't bit on, one tune I haven't whistled. But I'm not afraid. I'm truly curious. Death won't get a crumb by my mouth I won't keep and savor. So don't you worry over me. Now, all of you go, and let me find my sleep...

I want you to meet Jonathan Swift, the author of that evil political book, Gulliver's Travels! And this other fellow is Charles Darwin, and this one is Schopenhauer, and this one is Einstein, and this one here at my elbow is Mr Albert Schweitzer, a very kind philosopher indeed. Here we all are, Montag. Aristophanes and Mahatma Gandhi and Gautama Buddha and Confucius and Thomas Love Peacock and Thomas Jefferson and Mr Lincoln, if you please. We are also Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

My heart stopped talking because it didn't want to talk anymore for a while.

Ha muerto. El corazón. —Lo lamento. —¿Cómo se siente? —Hathaway no quería que nos sintiéramos mal. Nos dijo que esto ocurriría en cualquier momento, y no quería que lloráramos. No nos enseñó a llorar. No quería que supiéramos hacerlo. Según él, nada peor puede ocurrirle a un hombre que saber cómo estar solo, y cómo estar triste, y ponerse a llorar.

Is it because we're having so much fun at home we've forgotten the world? Is it because we're so rich and the rest of the world's so poor and we just don't care if they are? I've heard rumours; the world is starving, but we're well-fed.

I like to watch people. Sometimes I ride the subway all day and look at them and listen to them. I just want to figure out who they are and what they want and where they're going.

The only things you're looking for... are in the world, but the only way the average chap will ever see ninety-nine percent of them is in a book. Don't ask for guarantees. And don't look to be saved in any one thing, person, machine, or library. Do your own bit of saving, and if you drown, at least die knowing you were headed for the shore.

La terrible tiranía de la mayoría!

We know the damn silly thing we just did. We know all the damn silly things we've done for a thousand years and as long as we know that and always have it around where we can see it, some day we'll stop making the goddam funeral pyres and jumping in the middle of them. We pick up a few more people that remember, every generation.

Après tout, on vit à l'époque des Kleenex. On fait avec les gens comme avec les mouchoirs, on froisse après usage, on jette, on en prend un autre, on se mouche, on froisse, on jette. Tout le monde se sert des basques du voisin.

By night the wires on the high poles tell evil tales in the dripping mist.

Yo soy un escritor apasionado, no intelectual, lo que quiere decir que mis personajes tienen que adelantarse a mí para vivir la historia. Si mi intelecto los alcanza demasiado pronto, toda la aventura puede quedar empantanada en la duda y en innumerables juegos mentales.

She could feel the mirrors waiting for her in each room much the same as you felt, without opening your eyes, that the first snow of winter has just fallen outside your window.

A Tyrannosaurus Rex. The Tyrant Lizard, the most incredible monster in history. Sign this release. Anything happens to you, we're not responsible. Those dinosaurs are hungry.

This was all he wanted now. Some sign that the immense world would accept him and give him the long time he needed to think all the things that must be thought.

Solo resta mencionar una predicción que mi Bombero jefe, Beatty, hizo en 1953, en medio de mi libro. Se refería a la posibilidad de quemar libros sin cerillas ni fuego. Porque no hace falta quemar libros si el mundo empieza a llenarse de gente que no lee, que no aprende, que no sabe.

Cuando en la oscuridad olvidamos lo cerca que estamos del vacío –decía mi abuelo–, algún día se presentará y se apoderará de nosotros, porque habremos olvidado lo terrible y lo real que puede ser.

Fata, în focul armei, în c?ldur?, sub È™oc, se îndoi ca o eÈ™arf? moale, se topi ca o figurin? de cleÈ™tar. În urma ei, gheaÈ›a, fulgii de z?pad?, fumul se risipir? în vânt. Locul de la cârm? r?mase gol.

No les des ninguna materia delicada como filosofía o sociología para que empiecen a atar cabos. Por ese camino se llega a la melancolía.

Creen que soy insociable. No me adapto. Es muy extraño. En el fondo, soy muy sociable. Todo depende de lo que se entienda por ser sociable, ¿no? Para mí, representa hablar de cosas como estas. –Hizo sonar unas nueces que habían caído del árbol del patio-. O comentar lo extraño que es el mundo.

The mosquitos were gone from the porch, and surely when they abandoned the conflict the war with Time was really done, there was nothing for it but that humans also forsake the battleground.

La televisione è "reale", immediata, ha dimensioni. Ti dice cosa pensare, anzi te lo grida: deve essere giusto, sembra essere giusto. E ti precipita alle sue conclusioni così in fretta che la mente non ha il tempo di rispondere: "Quante sciocchezze!".

There must be something in books, things we can't imagine, to make a woman stay in a burning house; there must be something there. You don't stay for nothing.

And the men with the cigarettes in their straight-lined mouths, the men with the eyes of puff-adders, took up their load of machine and tube, their case of liquid melancholy and the slow dark sludge of nameless stuff, and strolled out the door.