199 quotes
Three things are in your head: First, everything you have experienced from the day of your birth until right now.
The Paris Review interview (2010)
The way to teach in this world is to pretend you're not teaching.
Playboy interview (1996)
“Oh,” said Brunilla, the cow-searcher. “A man with wings.”
That was how she took it. 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.
The October Country (1955)
Grandma, he had often wanted to say, Is this where the world began? For surely it had begun in no other than a place like this. The kitchen, without doubt, was the center of creation, all things revolved about it; it was the pediment that sustained the temple.
Dandelion Wine (1957)
O autumn winds that bake and burn
And all the world to darkness turn,
Now storm and seize and make of me…
A swarm of leaves from Autumn’s Tree!
The Halloween Tree (1972)
Every morning I jump out of bed and step on a landmine. The landmine is me. After the explosion, I spend the rest of the day putting the pieces together.
Preface to Zen in the Art of Writing (1990)
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.
The Paris Review interview (2010)
I write fantasy. The only science fiction I have written is Fahrenheit 451. It's the art of the possible. Science fiction is the art of the possible. It could happen. It has happened.
He struck off into the forest, idly, drawn steadily by a sound that was large enough to fill the universe, the sound of a river going somewhere and not caring; the most beautiful sound of all.
The Toynbee Convector (1988)
We must not let them go into the fourth and fifth grades not knowing how to read.
The Paris Review interview (2010)
The need for romance is constant, and again, it’s pooh-poohed by intellectuals.
The Paris Review interview (2010)
Science fiction pretends to look into the future but it’s really looking at a reflection of what is already in front of us.
The Paris Review interview (2010)
You can criticize communists, racists, fascists or any other clear and present danger, and they can't imagine you are writing about them.
Playboy interview (1996)
That’s the whole secret: to do things that excite you.
The Paris Review interview (2010)
I foresaw political correctness 43 years ago.
Playboy interview (1996)
We should be back on the moon right now.
Playboy interview (1996)
Science Fiction is the fiction of ideas.
The Paris Review interview (2010)
At the center of religion is love. I love you and I forgive you. I am like you and you are like me. I love all people. I love the world. I love creating. Everything in our life should be based on love.
“I believe,” said the first lady, “that our souls are in our hands. For we do everything to the world with our hands. Sometimes I think we don’t use our hands half enough; it’s certain we don’t use our heads.”
The Golden Apples of the Sun (1953)
Some laugh, some cry, some bang the world with fists, some run, but it all sums up the same: they make do.
The world swarms with people, each one drowning, but each swimming a different stroke to the far shore.
I Sing the Body Electric! (1969)