The Stories of Ray Bradbury Quotes

“This is the kind of life I've had. Drunk, and in charge of a bicycle, as an Irish police report once put it. Drunk with life, that is, and not knowing where off to next. But you're on your way before dawn. And the trip? Exactly one half terror, exactly one half exhilaration.”
― Ray Bradbury, The Stories of Ray Bradbury

“The darkness pulls back, startled, shocked, angry. Pulls back, losing its appetite at being so rudely interrupted as it prepared to feed.”
― Ray Bradbury, The Stories of Ray Bradbury

“with him holding her she felt so beautiful she knew their marriage had slipped her from her ugliness, like a bright sword from its case.”
― Ray Bradbury, The Stories of Ray Bradbury

“He, on the other hand, found great beauty behind her face, great kindness and understanding.”
― Ray Bradbury, The Stories of Ray Bradbury

“She was startled, yes, but she had never been hurt in her life, so she wasn’t afraid of anyone, and it was a fancy thing to see a winged man and she was proud to meet him.”
― Ray Bradbury, The Stories of Ray Bradbury

“The winds that had been young and wild grew old and serene,”
― Ray Bradbury, The Stories of Ray Bradbury

“Today is August 4, 2026,” said a second voice from the kitchen ceiling, “in the city of Allendale, California.” It repeated the date three times for memory’s sake. “Today is Mr. Featherstone’s birthday. Today is the anniversary of Tilita’s marriage. Insurance is payable, as are the water, gas, and light bills.”
― Ray Bradbury, The Stories of Ray Bradbury

“I look at all the little children’s faces going by. And I sometimes think, What a shame, what a shame, that all these flowers have to be cut, all these bright fires have to be put out. What a shame these, all of these you see in schools or running by, have to get tall and unsightly and wrinkle and turn gray or get bald, and finally, all bone and wheeze, be dead and buried off away. When I hear them laugh I can’t believe they’ll ever go the road I’m going. Yet here they Come! I still remember Wordsworth’s poem: ‘When all at once I saw a crowd, A host of golden daffodils; Beside the lake, beneath the trees, Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.’ That’s how I think of children, cruel as they sometimes are, mean as I know they can be, but not yet showing the meanness around their eyes or in their eyes, not yet full of tiredness. They’re so eager for everything! I guess that’s what I miss most in older folks, the eagerness gone nine times out of ten, the freshness gone, so much of the drive and life down the drain. I like to watch school let out each day. It’s like someone threw a bunch of flowers out the school front doors. How does it feel, Willie? How does it feel to be young forever? To look like a silver dime new from the mint? Are you happy? Are you as fine as you seem?” ***”
― Ray Bradbury, The Stories of Ray Bradbury

“surprise her with a stake driven through her heart!”
― Ray Bradbury, The Stories of Ray Bradbury

“I don’t want to shout it to the jaybirds, but”—she glanced suspiciously around—“what would you say if I told you I was the first line of defense concerning flying saucers”
― Ray Bradbury, The Stories of Ray Bradbury

“Those who live in the best cliffs think they are better than us. That is always man’s attitude when he has power.”
― Ray Bradbury, The Stories of Ray Bradbury

“children wildly strewn by slumber.”
― Ray Bradbury, The Stories of Ray Bradbury

“The monster was only a hundred yards off now, it and the Fog Horn crying at each other. As the lights hit them, the monster’s eyes were fire and ice, fire and ice.”
― Ray Bradbury, The Stories of Ray Bradbury

“and whirled on again, in fan motions, in whispers and sighs, to “Beautiful Ohio.”
― Ray Bradbury, The Stories of Ray Bradbury

“Since then, I have never listened to anyone who criticized my taste in space-travel, sideshows or gorillas. When such occurs, I pack up my dinosaurs and leave the room.”
― Ray Bradbury, The Stories of Ray Bradbury

“There are a million small towns like this all over the world. Each as dark, as lonely, each as removed, as full of shuddering and wonder. The reedy playing of minor-key violins is the small towns’ music, with no lights but many shadows. Oh the vast swelling loneliness of them. The secret damp ravines of them. Life is a horror lived in them at night, when at all sides sanity, marriage, children, happiness, are threatened by an ogre called Death.”
― Ray Bradbury, The Stories of Ray Bradbury

“Writing is supposed to be difficult, agonizing, a dreadful exercise, a terrible occupation. But, you see, my stories have led me through my life. They shout, I follow. They run up and bite me on the leg—I respond by writing down everything that goes on during the bite. When I finish, the idea lets go, and runs off. That is the kind of life I’ve had. Drunk, and in charge of a bicycle, as an Irish police report once put it. Drunk with life, that is, and not knowing where off to next. But you’re on your way before dawn. And the trip? Exactly one half terror, exactly one half exhilaration.”
― Ray Bradbury, The Stories of Ray Bradbury

“By the time many people are fourteen or fifteen, they have been divested of their loves, their ancient and intuitive tastes, one by one, until when they reach maturity there is no fun left, no zest, no gusto, no flavor.”
― Ray Bradbury, The Stories of Ray Bradbury

“Father Peregrine leaned heavily forward. “Adam alone did not sin. Add Eve and you add temptation. Add a second man and you make adultery possible. With the addition of sex or people, you add sin. If men were armless they could not strangle with their hands. You would not have that particular sin of murder. Add arms, and you add the possibility of a new violence. Amoebas cannot sin because they reproduce by fission. They do not covet wives or murder each other. Add sex to amoebas, add arms and legs, and you would have murder and adultery. Add an arm or leg or person, or take away each, and you add or subtract possible evil.”
― Ray Bradbury, The Stories of Ray Bradbury