Dad, will they ever come back?" "No. And yes." Dad tucked away his harmonica. "No not them. But yes, other people like them. Not in a carnival. God knows what shape they'll come in next. But sunrise, noon, or at the latest, sunset tomorrow they'll show. They're on the road." "Oh, no," said Will. "Oh, yes, said Dad. "We got to watch out the rest of our lives. The fight's just begun." They moved around the carousel slowly. "What will they look like? How will we know them?" "Why," said Dad, quietly, "maybe they're already here." Both boys looked around swiftly. But there was only the meadow, the machine, and themselves. Will looked at Jim, at his father, and then down at his own body and hands. He glanced up at Dad. Dad nodded, once, gravely, and then nodded at the carousel, and stepped up on it, and touched a brass pole. Will stepped up beside him. Jim stepped up beside Will. Jim stroked a horse's mane. Will patted a horse's shoulders. The great machine softly tilted in the tides of night. Just three times around, ahead, thought Will. Hey. Just four times around, ahead, thought Jim. Boy. Just ten times around, back, thought Charles Halloway. Lord. Each read the thoughts in the other's eyes. How easy, thought Will. Just this once, thought Jim. But then, thought Charles Halloway, once you start, you'd always come back. One more ride and one more ride. And, after awhile, you'd offer rides to friends, and more friends until finally... The thought hit them all in the same quiet moment. ...finally you wind up owner of the carousel, keeper of the freaks... proprietor for some small part of eternity of the traveling dark carnival shows.... Maybe, said their eyes, they're already here.
Ray Bradbury
Related Did I ever tell you about the man who taught his asshole to talk? His whole abdomen ... WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS Forgive the beggar attention is all that’s seeked and in return I never give this ... ISABEL AANYA LEIGH Dad!" Jesus yelled. "Yes, son," God said. "That star's light just went out," Jesus told hi... ANTHONY T. HINCKS there is a place in the heart that will never be filled a space and even ... CHARLES BUKOWSKI Better associations __________________ If you associate yourself with a change maker... ISRAELMORE AYIVOR Beauty is frightening," they will tell you — Lazily you will arrange A Spani... ALEXANDER BLOK Better Associations: If you associate yourself with a change maker, Your life will b... ISRAELMORE AYIVOR O Deep Thought computer," he said, "the task we have designed you to perform is this. We want you to... DOUGLAS ADAMS TO ALL MANKIND Speak kind words to mankind and the unkind will attack you.... SUZY KASSEM I promise I'll never tell." "Don't promise that," he said in an ultraserious voice. "If t... JERI SMITH-READY I think of you often and make no outward show, But what it means to lose you, no one will ... ANON. In the Novel He described her mouth as full of ashes. So when he kissed her finally<... SUSAN STEWART Answers to Frequently Asked Questions: Yes. Yes. No. One time in high school. ELLEN DEGENERES ON THE DAY I DIE On the day I die, when I'm being carried toward the grave, don't we... RUMI The poet dreams of the classroom I dreamed I stood up in class And I said aloud... MARY OLIVER Up the still, glistening beaches, Up the creeks we will hie, Over banks of bright seaweed<... MATTHEW ARNOLD FRUITS AND NUTS Keep jumping around them like monkeys. The clones, Commer... SUZY KASSEM And brilliant days come alive, with you, around but the things we d... ANDREA KOEHLE JONES There was a few seconds' pause. Then Amit said: I meant, what were you thinking just now. VIKRAM SETH Dad?" Jesus said. "Yes son. What is it?" God replied. "Why have you left the stars turned ... ANTHONY T. HINCKS THE MAXIMS OF MEDICINE Before you examine the body of a patient, Be patient to lear... SUZY KASSEM Oppression Now dreams Are not available To the dreamers, Nor songs To... LANGSTON HUGHES Did you learn the rotation of the border patrols?’ said Laurent. ‘Yes, our scouts fou... C.S. PACAT The Doors The End This is the end, beautiful friend This is the end, my ... JIM MORRISON Buckley followed the three of them into the kitchen and asked, as he had at least once a day, “Whe... ALICE SEBOLD You don’t understand,” my dad said. “They stop you.” “Who? What are you talkin... CRISTINA HENRIQUEZ In trials of ir'n and silver fain “The dead will rise and walk again “The blesséd few... NENIA CAMPBELL SEA OF LIFE This is not the end, my friend. Just as the ocean sings songs to infinit... SUZY KASSEM Come back to me. Where have you gone? And why so long? I miss the star below your lip... KAMAND KOJOURI She asks why I like her. Might as well ask Why I breathe. Maybe tomorrow I won't GAIL CARSON LEVINE Oh precious Lord! Oh precious Lord! Thou know them all The thought of my mind An... ERNEST AGYEMANG YEBOAH One of them has to break,” the queen said to the princess. “Only then can it begin.” SARAH J. MAAS Once on a yellow piece of paper with green lines he wrote a poem And he called it "Chops"... STEPHEN CHBOSKY Hardly had the light been extinguished, when a peculiar trembling began to affect the netting u... VICTOR HUGO A word of consolation may sweetly touch the ear. Now and then a quiet song will clea... RICHELLE E. GOODRICH After a while Mary said, “Zsadist?” “Yeah?” “What are those markings... J.R. WARD Overheard on a Saltmarsh" Nymph, nymph, what are your beads? Green glass, gobl... HAROLD MONRO But above and beyond there's still one name left over, And that is the name that you never will... T.S. ELIOT That time I thought I could not go any closer to grief without dying I wen... MARY OLIVER Will’s voice dropped. “Everyone makes mistakes, Jem.” “Yes,” said Jem. “You just ma... CASSANDRA CLARE Stairs," Valkyrie said, disappointed. "Not just ordinary stairs," Skulduggery told her as he le... DEREK LANDY There is a plain under a dim sky. It is covered with gentle rolling curves that might remind you of ... TERRY PRATCHETT And who shall separate the dust What later we shall be: Whose keen discerning eye will scan GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON VISION OF A WISARD How many of you wish to be Wizards when you grow old? How many of... NATAšA NUIT PANTOVIć ENDURANCE I don't know you, But I love you, Just as God loves me and you. ... SUZY KASSEM you've got to burn straight up and down and then maybe sidewise for a while and ... CHARLES BUKOWSKI That's what you people never understand," said Rincewind, wearily. "You think magic is just somethin... TERRY PRATCHETT We already have the Wooden Pillar, the Steel Pillar and the Plastic Pillar. In a moment we will have... DOUGLAS ADAMS [Reed said the delays give companies like his the motivation and opportunity to look more ... BRUCE REED Closed eyes can't sacrifice a third time i may never know A dreamer's dream GREG C WARNER I believe in love at first sight but I will always believe that the people we l... TYLER KNOTT GREGSON I have been hanging here headless for so long that the body has forgotten w... CHARLES BUKOWSKI I sit beside the fire and think Of all that I have seen Of meadow flowers and butterflies... J.R.R. TOLKIEN THE THREE LAWS OF ALL You are never to worship a living soul, Except for three entit... SUZY KASSEM Saiman reached into the trunk and pulled out a pink tulle tutu. “No.” “Yes.” ILONA ANDREWS Exactly when will you give up? When things will seem out of your hands ? When ... SANHITA BARUAH I have many lovers. Where ever I look, I find them. There is no place devoid of them. ANSUL NOOR A Boat O beautiful was the werewolf in his evil forest. We took him t... RICHARD BRAUTIGAN If an eagle gives you a feather, keep it safe. Remember: that giants sleep too soundly; that NEIL GAIMAN I am not the first person you loved. You are not the first person I looked at with a mouth... CLEMENTINE VON RADICS I mean, d'you know what eternity is? There's this big mountain, see, a mile high, at the end of the ... NEIL GAIMAN Is it true that you shouted at Professor Umbridge?' 'Yes,' said Harry. 'You ca... J.K. ROWLING Tohrment spoke. "Bella's brother called. He's tabled the sehelusion request and asked that she stay ... J.R. WARD Dad?" Jesus asked. "Yes, son?" God asked. "Why are people so scared of dying?" Jesus asked... ANTHONY T. HINCKS NEVER GIVE UP No matter what is going on Never give up Develop the heart Too muc... DALAI LAMA XIV THE SILENT PEOPLE Some people are so rude, Living their lives with no concern for ot... GIORGE LEEDY Everywhere, Everywhere" amazing, how grimly we hold onto our misery, ever defen... CHARLES BUKOWSKI The weight of the world is love. Under the burden of solitude, under the burden<... ALLEN GINSBERG I had no idea what humans were capable of. I heard they were crafty, but how are they able to do suc... PATRICK JENNINGS The day will come When my body no longer exists But in the lines of this poem I will ... SAPARDI DJOKO DAMONO Kate makes good sausage," Jim said. Six pairs of eyes stared at me. Thank you, Mr. Wonder... ILONA ANDREWS Walk straight ahead Listen to no one Trust not in the walls or doorways For they will... RENéE PAULE The world is a beautiful place to be born into if you don't mind happiness not always... LAWRENCE FERLINGHETTI Now I only need to look out at them through my sky-blue eyes. They see their own ill will<... MARGARET ATWOOD Alright! You sir, you sir, how about a shave? Come and visit your good friend Sweeney. You... STEPHEN SONDHEIM It's beautiful," said Mort softly. "What is it?" THE SUN IS UNDER THE DISC, said Death. TERRY PRATCHETT Rolando pursed his lips and sighed. “Just be careful.” “Why, because her father ca... FELIX ALEXANDER It happens all the time in heaven, And some day It will begin to happen Again o... شمس الدین محمد حافظ شیرازی We are Adam and Eve born out of chaos called creation Ribbing me gave you life MEGAN MCCAFFERTY Dad?" Jesus asked. "Yes son?" God replied. "Why does man have so many religions?" Jesus as... ANTHONY T. HINCKS circle back, you're nearly through. The next one, then just one more clue. Summer's comin... MEGAN FRAZER BLAKEMORE sometimes when everything seems at its worst when all conspires and gnaws and th... CHARLES BUKOWSKI CAUSE AND EFFECT You can give a man who has never given you a good word, Volumes of ... SUZY KASSEM The Brain - is wider than the Sky - For - put them side by side - The one the other will c... EMILY DICKINSON If I were a cinnamon peeler I would ride your bed and leave the yellow bark dust on y... MICHAEL ONDAATJE Turn on the lights, And hide from sight, As we come trick or treating, Throughout th... ANTHONY T. HINCKS Who are you? How can one person be gregarious and a recluse Open and closed at the same ti... EVY MICHAELS Yawn... I believe that I love sleep much more than anybody I’ve ever met. CHARLES BUKOWSKI If you prefer smoke over fire then get up now and leave. For I do not intend to perfume ADYASHANTI Demon pox, oh demon pox Just how is it acquired? One must go down to the bad part of town<... CASSANDRA CLARE they thought that writing had something to do with the politics of the thing. CHARLES BUKOWSKI Maybe,' he said hesitantly, 'maybe there is a beast.' The assembly cried out savagely and Ralph... WILLIAM GOLDING THE FOUR HEAVENLY FOUNTAINS Laugh, I tell you And you will turn back The ... SUZY KASSEM Come to the edge," he said. "We can't, we're afraid!" they responded. "Come to the edge," ... GUILLAUME APOLLINAIRE We have tears in our eyes As we wave our goodbyes, We so loved being with you, we three. ROALD DAHL Women of the Gallagher Academy, who comes here?" she asked. Just then, every girl at eve... ALLY CARTER Was that me? Yes it was. Was that him? No it wasn't.. Just a trick of the woods! Just ... STEPHEN SONDHEIM I'm Writing my stoy. But i'm also plotting my escape from this prison cell. This is my pl... CAROLEE DEAN "The Lesson": Yes, my fretting, Frowning child, I could cross The room to y... CAROL LYNN PEARSON I will miss my chest exploding you coming home late not turning on the light alw... CHARLOTTE ERIKSSON
More Ray Bradbury
My stories run up and bite me on the leg - I respond by writing down everything that goes on during ... RAY BRADBURY It's not going to do any good to land on Mars if we're stupid. RAY BRADBURY The major networks, the cable networks, they're being prosecutors. They're judges and jurors... RAY BRADBURY There is too much government today. We've got to remember the government should be by the people... RAY BRADBURY He had never liked October. Ever since he had first lay in the autumn leaves before his grandmother'... RAY BRADBURY Beware the autumn people RAY BRADBURY That country whose people are autumn people, thinking only autumn thoughts. Whose people passing at ... RAY BRADBURY When I was seven or eight years old, I began to read the science-fiction magazines that were brought... RAY BRADBURY Ah, art! Ah, life! The pendulum swinging back and forth, from complex to simple, again to complex. F... 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RAY BRADBURY We are the miracle of force and matter making itself over into imagination and will. Incredible. The... RAY BRADBURY I don't try to describe the future. I try to prevent it. RAY BRADBURY We're all fools...all the time. It's just we're a different kind each day. We think, I'm not a fool ... RAY BRADBURY Everyone must leave something behind when he dies, my grandfather said. A child or a book or a paint... RAY BRADBURY Facts quite often, I fear to confess, like lawyers, put me to sleep at noon. Not theories, however. ... RAY BRADBURY The point is obvious. There is more than one way to burn a book. And the world is full of people r... RAY BRADBURY Stuff your eyes with wonder . . . live as if you'd drop dead in ten seconds. See the world. It's mor... RAY BRADBURY We are all cups, constantly and quietly being filled. The trick is, knowing how to tip ourselves ove... RAY BRADBURY So few want to be rebels anymore. And out of those few, most, like myself, scare easily. 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I went to find me in the library. RAY BRADBURY When I graduated from high school, it was during the Depression and we had no money. RAY BRADBURY Don't think. Thinking is the enemy of creativity. It's self-conscious, and anything self-con... RAY BRADBURY Sometimes the man who looks happiest in town, with the biggest smile, is the one carrying the bigges... RAY BRADBURY Cram them full of non-combustible data, chock them so damned full of 'facts' they feel stuffed, but ... RAY BRADBURY He glanced back at the wall. How like a mirror, too, her face. Impossible; for how many people did y... RAY BRADBURY You're insane!" "I won't argue that point. RAY BRADBURY Fire is bright and fire is clean. RAY BRADBURY I want to feel all there is to feel, he thought. Let me feel tired, now, let me feel tired. I mustn'... RAY BRADBURY That country where it is always turning late in the year. That country where the hills are fog and t... 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RAY BRADBURY If God treats you well by teaching you a disastrous lesson, you never forget it. RAY BRADBURY With school turning out more runners, jumpers, racers, tinkerers, grabbers, snatchers, fliers, and s... RAY BRADBURY We need not to be let alone. We need to be really bothered once in a while. How long is it since you... RAY BRADBURY Without libraries what have we? We have no past and no future RAY BRADBURY We are an impossibility in an impossible universe RAY BRADBURY If you dream the proper dreams, and share the myths with people, they will want to grow up to be lik... RAY BRADBURY First of all, it was October, a rare month for boys. Not that all months aren't rare. But one strang... RAY BRADBURY I'm seventeen and I'm crazy. My uncle says the two always go together. When people ask your age, he ... RAY BRADBURY You have to know how to accept rejection and reject acceptance. RAY BRADBURY Don't think. Thinking is the enemy of creativity. It's self-conscious, and anything self-conscious i... RAY BRADBURY Too late, I found you can't wait to become perfect, you got to go out and fall down and get up with ... RAY BRADBURY I was one of Them: the Strange Ones. The Funny People. The Odd Tribes of autograph collectors and ph... RAY BRADBURY If you don't want a man unhappy politically, don't give him two sides to a question to worry him; gi... RAY BRADBURY Stuff your eyes with wonder . . . live as if you'd drop dead in ten seconds. See the world. It's m... RAY BRADBURY Every morning I jump out of bed and step on a landmine. The landmine is me. After the explosion, I s... RAY BRADBURY Stuff your eyes with wonder, live as if you'd drop dead in ten seconds. See the world. It's ... RAY BRADBURY It's lack that gives us inspiration. It's not fullness. RAY BRADBURY If you want to be a good writer, be the best writer in the world. That's what I've done. RAY BRADBURY All my stories are like the Greek and Roman myths, and the Egyptian myths, and the Old and New Testa... RAY BRADBURY If you did not write every day, the poisons would accumulate and you would begin to die, or act craz... RAY BRADBURY We all are rich and ignore the buried fact of accumulated wisdom. RAY BRADBURY Through neglect, ignorance, or inability, the new intellectual Borgias cram hairballs down our throa... RAY BRADBURY What is the greatest reward a writer can have? Isn't it that day when someone rushes up to you, his ... RAY BRADBURY It is a lie to write in such way as to be rewarded by fame offered you by some snobbish quasi-litera... RAY BRADBURY Who are your friends? Do they believe in you? Or do they stunt your growth with ridicule and disbeli... RAY BRADBURY Think of Shakespeare and Melville and you think of thunder, lightning, wind. They all knew the joy o... RAY BRADBURY This afternoon, burn down the house. Tomorrow, pour critical water upon the simmering coals. Time en... RAY BRADBURY I came on the old and best ways of writing through ignorance and experiment and was startled when tr... RAY BRADBURY We never sit anything out. We are cups, quietly and constantly being filled. The trick is knowing ho... RAY BRADBURY And metaphors like cats behind your smile, Each one wound up to purr, each one a pride, RAY BRADBURY We need our Arts to teach us how to breathe RAY BRADBURY Now that I have you thoroughly confused, let me pause to hear your own dismayed cry. RAY BRADBURY Read poetry every day of your life. Poetry is good because it flexes muscles you don’t use often e... RAY BRADBURY In your reading, find books to improve your color sense, your sense of shape and size in the world. RAY BRADBURY Writing is supposed to be difficult, agonizing, a dreadful exercise, a terrible occupation. RAY BRADBURY We have our Arts so we won't die of Truth RAY BRADBURY We must take arms each and every day, perhaps knowing that the battle cannot be entirely won, but fi... RAY BRADBURY Write. Don't think. Relax. RAY BRADBURY And what, you ask, does writing teach us? First and foremost, it reminds us that we are alive and th... RAY BRADBURY What are the best things and the worst things in your life, and when are you going to get around to ... RAY BRADBURY Plot is no more than footprints left in the snow after your characters have run by on their way to i... RAY BRADBURY You grow ravenous. You run fevers. You know exhilarations. You can't sleep at night, because your be... RAY BRADBURY That's the great secret of creativity. You treat ideas like cats: you make them follow you. RAY BRADBURY There is more than one way to burn a book. And the world is full of people running about with lit ma... RAY BRADBURY Where would you like to go, what would you really like to do with your life? See Istanbu... RAY BRADBURY Do you know that books smell like nutmeg or some spice from a foreign land? I loved to smell them wh... RAY BRADBURY You'll be found, your nickels, dimes and Indian-heads fused by electroplating. Abe Lincolns melted i... RAY BRADBURY There's no use going to school unless your final destination is the library. RAY BRADBURY You must write every single day of your life... You must lurk in libraries and climb the stacks like... RAY BRADBURY Stuff your eyes with wonder, he said, live as if you'd drop dead in ten seconds. See the world. It's... RAY BRADBURY You can’t learn to write in college. It’s a very bad place for writers because the teachers alwa... RAY BRADBURY Our civilization is flinging itself to pieces. Stand back from the centrifuge. RAY BRADBURY Orwell was dealing with communism and his disillusionment with communism in Russia and what he saw t... RAY BRADBURY Sunsets are loved because they vanish. Flowers are loved because they go. The ... RAY BRADBURY Why love the woman who is your wife? Her nose breathes in the air of a world that I know; therefore ... RAY BRADBURY Looking back over a lifetime, you see that love was the answer to everything. RAY BRADBURY Sunsets we always liked because they only happen once and go away." "But, Lena, that's sad." RAY BRADBURY No matter how hard you try to be what you once were, you can only be what you are here and now. RAY BRADBURY I often wonder if God recognizes His own son the way we've dressed him up, or is it dressed him down... RAY BRADBURY The things that you do should be things that you love, and things that you love should be things tha... RAY BRADBURY I am madness maddened when it comes to books, writers, and the great granary silos where their wits ... RAY BRADBURY When I was a boy in the midwest I used to go out and look at the stars at night and wonder about the... RAY BRADBURY There was a silly damn bird called a phoenix back before Christ, every few hundred years he built a ... RAY BRADBURY Le cose che voi cercate, Montag, sono su questa terra, ma il solo modo per cui l’uomo medio potrà... RAY BRADBURY Melt all the guns, I thought, break the knives, burn the guillotines-and the malicious will still wr... RAY BRADBURY Anything you dream is fiction, and anything you accomplish is science, the whole history of mankind ... RAY BRADBURY First you jump off the cliff and build your wings on the way down. RAY BRADBURY I have two rules in life - to hell with it, whatever it is, and get your work done. RAY BRADBURY Love. Fall in love and stay in love. Write only what you love, and love what you write. The word is ... RAY BRADBURY Don't ask for guarantees. And don't look to be saved in any one thing, person, machine, or library. ... RAY BRADBURY A good night sleep, or a ten minute bawl, or a pint of chocolate ice cream, or all three together, i... RAY BRADBURY And when he died, I suddenly realized I wasn’t crying for him at all, but for the things he did. I... RAY BRADBURY I don't believe in colleges and universities. I believe in libraries because most students don't hav... RAY BRADBURY If you want to write, if you want to create, you must be the most sublime fool that God ever turned ... RAY BRADBURY One day many years ago a man walked along and stood in the sound of the ocean on a cold sunless shor... RAY BRADBURY Millions of students now, in all the schools of America, are reading science fiction and especially,... RAY BRADBURY We've gotta become the Martians. I'm a Martian - I tell you to become Martians. And we'v... RAY BRADBURY I have spent my life going from mania to mania. Somehow it has all paid off. RAY BRADBURY That's the wonderful thing about man; he never gets so discouraged or disgusted that he gives up doi... RAY BRADBURY The home environment can undo a lot you try to do at school. RAY BRADBURY There were only the great diamonds and sapphires and emerald mists and velvet inks of space, with Go... RAY BRADBURY Some people turn sad awfully young. No special reason, it seems, but they seem almost to be born tha... RAY BRADBURY Find out what your hero or heroine wants, and when he or she wakes up in the morning, just follow hi... RAY BRADBURY The average TV commercial of sixty seconds has one hundred and twenty half-second clips in it, or on... RAY BRADBURY If we listened to our intellect we'd never have a love affair. We'd never have a friendship. We'd ne... RAY BRADBURY Find out what your hero or heroine wants, and when he or she wakes up in the morning, just follow hi... RAY BRADBURY Impossible; for how many people did you know who refracted your own light to you? RAY BRADBURY Without libraries what have we? We have no past and no future. RAY BRADBURY You can't learn to write in college. It's a very bad place for writers because the teachers ... RAY BRADBURY You fail only if you stop writing RAY BRADBURY Don't think. Thinking is the enemy of creativity. It's self-conscious, and anything self-conscious... RAY BRADBURY