“Without Libraries What Have We? We Have No Past And No Future.”

“Each book was a world unto itself, and in it I took refuge.”

—

Alberto Manguel

“How do you get so empty? Who takes it out of you?”

—

Ray Bradbury, from Fahrenheit 451 (Ballantine Books 1953)

When we forget how close the wilderness is in the night, my grandpa said, some day it will come in and get us, for we will have forgotten how terrible and real it can be.

― Ray Bradbury (Fahrenheit 451)

Why is it," he said, one time, at the subway entrance, "I feel I've known you so many years?" "Because I like you," she said, "and I don't want anything from you.

—Ray Bradbury

From our stacks: Illustration for "A Sound of Thunder," from The Golden Apples of the Sun. Ray Bradbury. With Drawings by Joe Mugnaini. London: Rupert Hart-Davis, 1972.

Science fiction is also a great way to pretend you are writing about the future when in reality you are attacking the recent past and the present.

Ray Bradbury (1920-2012) American writer, futurist, fabulist

(via macrolit)

‘It’s not you I worry about,’ said Douglas. ‘It’s the way God runs the world.’

Tom thought about this for a moment.

‘He’s all right, Doug,’ said Tom. ‘He tries.’

Ray Bradbury, Dandelion Wine

“We earth men have a talent for ruining big, beautiful things.”

— Ray Bradbury, The Martian Chronicles

It was a quiet morning, the town covered over with darkness and at ease in bed. Summer gathered in the weather, the wind had the proper touch, the breathing of the world was long and warm and slow. You had only to rise, lean from your window, and know that this indeed was the first real time of freedom and living, this was the first morning of summer.

— Ray Bradbury, Dandelion Wine (William Morrow Paperbacks; April 23, 2013) (via Cultural Offering)

Happy 100th birthday, Ray Bradbury (b. 22 August 1920)