Ray Bradbury

“If God treats you well by teaching you a disastrous lesson, you never forget it.”

“The great fun in my life has been getting up every morning and rushing to the typewriter because some new idea has hit me.”

“There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them.”

“The best scientist is open to experience and begins with romance - the idea that anything is possible.”

“If you dream the proper dreams, and share the myths with people, they will want to grow up to be like you.”

“If we listened to our intellect, we'd never have a love affair. We'd never have a friendship. We'd never go into business, because we'd be cynical. Well, that's nonsense. You've got to jump off cliffs all the time and build your wings on the way down.”

“I spent three days a week for 10 years educating myself in the public library, and it's better than college. People should educate themselves - you can get a complete education for no money. At the end of 10 years, I had read every book in the library and I'd written a thousand stories.”

“I hate all politics. I don't like either political party. One should not belong to them - one should be an individual, standing in the middle. Anyone that belongs to a party stops thinking.”

“Science fiction is any idea that occurs in the head and doesn't exist yet, but soon will, and will change everything for everybody, and nothing will ever be the same again. As soon as you have an idea that changes some small part of the world you are writing science fiction. It is always the art of the possible, never the impossible.”

“If you know how to read, you have a complete education about life, then you know how to vote within a democracy. But if you don't know how to read, you don't know how to decide. That's the great thing about our country - we're a democracy of readers, and we should keep it that way.”

“My business is to prevent the future.”

“I don't try to describe the future. I try to prevent it.”

“Without libraries what have we? We have no past and no future.”

“My religion encompasses all religions. I believe in God, I believe in the universe. I believe you are god, I believe I am god; I believe the earth is god and the universe is god. We're all god.”

“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.”

“It's not going to do any good to land on Mars if we're stupid.”

“There is too much government today. We've got to remember the government should be by the people, of the people, and for the people.”

“A book has got smell. A new book smells great. An old book smells even better. An old book smells like ancient Egypt.”

“I have total recall. I remember being born. I remember being in the womb, I remember being inside. Coming out was great.”

“We are the miracle of force and matter making itself over into imagination and will. Incredible. The Life Force experimenting with forms. You for one. Me for another. The Universe has shouted itself alive. We are one of the shouts.”

“Love. Fall in love and stay in love. Write only what you love, and love what you write. The key word is love. You have to get up in the morning and write something you love, something to live for.”

“Love is the answer to everything. It's the only reason to do anything. If you don't write stories you love, you'll never make it. If you don't write stories that other people love, you'll never make it.”

“Love is easy, and I love writing. You can't resist love. You get an idea, someone says something, and you're in love.”

“We are anthill men upon an anthill world.”