"You must never ask questions of yourself when writing a story. Never think about stories. Do them. All of these stories came to me, boom, like that!" (p. 150)
"Let’s burn books. Why? And then Captain Beatty tells you. They are dangerous. They get you to thinking and that makes you unhappy. There’s no room for diversity because as soon as you become diverse, you begin to argue with people. And then you go to bed very unhappy. " (p. 160)
"Exploring space is our effort to become immortal. If we stay here on Earth, human beings are doomed, because someday the sun will either explode or go out. By going out into space, first back to the moon, then to Mars, and then beyond, man will live forever." (p. 183)
"WELLER: What about more explicit pornography?
BRADBURY: It shows too much. Women are meant to be inhaled, not impaled." (p. 256)
"Work is the only answer. I have three rules to live by: Get your work done. If that doesn’t work, shut up and drink your gin, and when all else fails, run like hell." (p. 328)
"WELLER: What is the future of humanity on planet Earth?
BRADBURY: We’re going to make it. We’ve already made it this far. We’ve conquered diseases. My sister died of the flu when I was seven. My brother’s twin died in the flu epidemic in 1918. My uncle died in the same outbreak. In those days, there were no medicines. We forget, because today’s generation has grown up with penicillin and sulfonamide. People have stopped dying, but before that we died from the simplest things. So we conquer things. We survive. We always have. We will live on." (p. 346)
Sam Weller (2010). Listen To The Echoes: The Ray Bradbury Interviews. Chicago: Stopsmiling Books.
