‘’And when he died, I suddenly realized I wasn’t crying for him at all, but for the things he did. I cried because he would never do them again, he would never carve another piece of wood or help us raise doves and pigeons in the backyard or play the violin the way he did, or tell us jokes the way he did. He was part of us and when he died, all the actions stopped dead and there was no one to do them the way he did. He was individual. He was an important man. I’ve never gotten over his death. Often I think what wonderful carvings never came to birth because he died. How many jokes are missing from the world, and how many homing pigeons untouched by his hands? He shaped the world. He did things to the world. The world was bankrupted of ten million fine actions the night he passed on.”
Ray Bradbury-Fahrenheit 451
Ray Bradbury died today at the age of 91. The first Ray Bradbury book I ever read was Something Wicked This Way Comes and I quickly devoured the rest of his books. I don’t know if there is a God or not, a heaven or a hell, and it isn’t for me to say whether there is or not but if there is anything lying in wait for Ray Bradbury beyond this life, I hope he is somewhere that is as crazily insane and fantastic as his books are.
solodialogue
/ June 6, 2012I wonder if it ever crossed his mind when he wrote those words, that they might be used for this purpose.
mistylayne
/ June 6, 2012As I wrote somewhere else today – “You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you.” ~Ray Bradbury~ I took your words to heart, Mr. Bradbury. You have been one of my biggest influences as both a writer and reader since I was 16 and you helped teach me that there’s more beauty in the world than one single person can realize and were heavily influential in the realization that for me, writing is my soul. “And when he died, I suddenly realized I wasn’t crying for him at all, but for the things he did.” ~Thank you, Mr. Bradbury, thank you.
Soma Mukherjee
/ June 7, 2012oh this is certainly a great loss…
“You must write every single day of your life… You must lurk in libraries and climb the stacks like ladders to sniff books like perfumes and wear books like hats upon your crazy heads… may you be in love every day for the next 20,000 days. And out of that love, remake a world.”
― Ray Bradbury
benzeknees
/ June 9, 2012This seems to be the year where people who had influences over my life are leaving this mortal plain – Davy Jones, Dick Clark, Whitney Houston, Ray Bradbury & more. So sad, so sad . . .