Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 remains one of the most iconic works in American Literature. At home with his cats and collectables, Mr. Bradbury talks about how the book came into being and what has sustained his extraordinary career.
"My God, I'm alive. Why didn't someone tell me I was alive?" Great line. What an epiphany he had which led to his writing several modern classics. This man was drunk on books and his words inspire me to this day.
I am here for school but I completely agree. it's a beautiful line and your first instinct is to laugh because, "What do you mean, we all our alive why would we say that to eachother?" But, it has so much more meaning
One of the early chapters in Dandelion Wine, my favorite Bradbury book, is a dramatization of this epiphany through his character Douglas Spalding. It is a gorgeous piece of writing in a gorgeous book.
I discovered this man in Something Wicked This Way Comes , when I was a high school kid, living in what was then (early 60s) a small town , Key West (Florida) with all the old white wooden houses and picket fences, just like the town the kids in the story lived in. It fascinated me and Ive never forgotten it. In 76 I remembered how that story had affected me and I looked for Bradbury in the bookstore in New York city. There I discovered The Martian Chronicles , which set me off reading sci-fi. He wrote a book on writing titled Zen In the Art of Writing, which is of great help to anyone wanting to write ( or do anything in life). In it he says that anyone who tells you to give up the things you love (because they may not be "cool") is not your friend and you should forget about them and do what you love, as he stated in this interview (do what you love and love what you do). And I have always thought that he IS a poet. Its obvious in the way he expresses himself when he writes Its beautiful. A great man.
Wish this was the type of person that everyone talked about today and wanted to read. His poetic way of talking and writing is so natural, but it's the liveliness that is most attractive. We should all aspire to beam this out. God bless.
RIP to the legend,Mr. Bradbury. 1920-2012 At least I have few of your short stories (some of them are in short stories collection) and his novel "Fahrenheit 451" .
Amazing , Bradbury, beutiful soul and human being, i am glad to have read some of his books, though i read them in spanish, God bless him wherever he is.
I'm currently re-reading The Illustrated Man (UK version) again. There really won't be anyone as good as far as I'm concerned. Read him aloud, celebrate his stories!
Literally my 1st memory is sitting under the table reading The Song Of Hiawatha in my Little Golden Book. asking my mother what an Island (Pronounced is land) was.
10:43 for anyone who wants to read the original from the magazine, here is a photocopied version: archive.org/details/galaxymagazine-1951-02/page/n5/mode/2up Its on page 4
FAHRENHEIT 451 is the best movie I watched in the last 10 years. Now I will definitely read the book too. Hopefully I'll find it. A very interesting and fascinating, yet diabolic concept/plot. Somehow, it reminds me of China's Cultural Revolution, when Mao ordered that all the books, besides his and the propaganda ones, to be burned. Scary scenario, really.
Above all the Baloney one's life can be surrounded by. Remember the Library folks? The thought of them gone or reserved for tramps or loafers is a sad idea. I am now becoming the man coming out of the library with books under his arm ,in Burgess' 'A Clockwork Orange." Chapter one. I remember posting a comment concerning the advantage of thrift stores supplying the public with books at very low prices , and how sometimes you could stumble upon old gems that can be hard to find. Then I noticed the reaction in my neighborhood. People started showing up with their phones scanning bar codes looking for books that may be worth something. Young illiterate schmucks loading up their carts. They missed the point. I want to throw up everytime I see this. I sometimes feel like Livy looking back to a time because the one he is in makes him sick.
To anyone watching this for school. Yes, this old man ranting about dinosaurs IS one of the greatest writers of the 20th century. You did not stumble onto some grandpa telling their kids about how nickles could get you 2 candy bars back in the day, this is infact the author of Fahrenheit 451 and the martian chronicles. You wish you will be as awesome as he is when you're his age.
Rayza The oldest interview on YT is from 12 years ago, so I guess this is a re-upload. However, Ray Bradbury died in 2012. Did you read his book "Fahrenheit 451"? Or did you watch the movie? It's crrrazy good!:)
godz... why the obnoxious monotonous synth banging the same chord behind this man's talking???? At LEAST you could have lowered the volume of it by 6 db.