Alex Blechman? Ray Bradbury? Neal Stephenson? Mark Zuckerberg? Abe Murray? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Science fiction is filled with cautionary fables and dystopian visions such as the murderous HAL 9000 computer of the movie “2001”, the relentless T-800 robot of the movie “The Terminator”, the disorienting cyberspace of the short story “Burning Chrome” by William …
Tag Archives: Ray Bradbury
Quote Origin: Self-Consciousness Is the Enemy of All Art
Ray Bradbury? Erica Jong? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: The science fiction luminary Ray Bradbury relied deeply on his intuitions and his imagination to compose lyrical prose. He believed that creativity was obstructed by over-thinking and intellectualizing. The following two statements have been attributed to him: Are these quotations genuine? Would you please help me …
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Quote Origin: If Matches Had Been Invented After Lighters They’d Be the Sensation of the Twentieth Century
George S. Kaufman? Ray Bradbury? Charles Norris? Bennett Cerf? Malcolm Bradbury? Question for Quote Investigator: A cigarette lighter is an impressive invention, but in some ways it is inferior to a simple match that is ignited by friction. A lighter requires fuel and a spark source; it can malfunction in myriad ways. The following point …
Quote Origin: We Are an Impossibility in an Impossible Universe
Ray Bradbury? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: On Facebook I saw the following quotation displayed on a star-filled picture: We are an impossibility in an impossible universe The words were attributed to the prominent science fiction author Ray Bradbury, but I haven’t been able to find a citation. Would you please help? Reply from Quote …
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Quote Origin: Storytelling: Just Give Them Two and Two and Let Them Add It Up
Billy Wilder? Ernst Lubitsch? Ted Elliott? Terry Rossio? Ray Bradbury? Vince Gilligan? Andrew Stanton? Question for Quote Investigator: On the commentary track of a video I once heard a screenwriter discuss the requirement to engage the audience’s cognitive powers while spinning a tale: Give the audience two plus two, and let them come up with …
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Quote Origin: Jump Off the Cliff and Build Your Wings on the Way Down
Ray Bradbury? Franco Mancassola? Kurt Vonnegut? Annie Dillard? Anonymous? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: The influential publisher Tim O’Reilly recently tweeted a great quotation about entrepreneurship that was used in a commencement address given by DJ Patil, a Data Scientist at a venture capital company. Here is an excerpt from the speech given at the …
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Quote Origin: I Do Not Want to Predict the Future. I Want to Prevent It
Frank Herbert? Ray Bradbury? Theodore Sturgeon? Fred Pohl? Question for Quote Investigator: I once read an interview with a science fiction writer in which he was asked about predicting the future. The interviewer was disappointed that some of the technological developments heralded in science fiction never seemed to actually happen. The response from the author …
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