Do you understand now why books are hated and feared? Because they reveal the pores on the face of life. The comfortable people want only the faces of the full moon, wax, faces without pores, hairless, expressionless.
Interpretation
Books uncover uncomfortable truths about life that some prefer to ignore.
This quote by Ray Bradbury suggests that books expose the raw, unfiltered aspects of life, which can make people uncomfortable. Those who favor superficiality may reject literature because it forces them to confront the complexities, flaws, and realities of existence, much like revealing the flaws on a human face as opposed to presenting only an idealized version.
In practice
During a literary discussion on the impact of literature in society.
I've written about 2,000 short stories; I've only published 300 and I feel I'm still learning. Any man who keeps working is not a failure. He may not be a great writer, but if he applies the old fashioned virtues of hard, constant labor, he'll eventually make some kind of career for himself as a writer. Ray Bradbury, 1967 interview (Doing the Math - that means for every story he sold, he wrote six "un-publishable" ones. Keep typing!)
I never went to college, so I went to the library.
There must be something in books, something we can’t imagine, to make a woman stay in a burning house; there must be something there. You don’t stay for nothing.
I think the sun is a flower, That blooms for just one hour.
The first thing a writer should be is - excited. He should be a thing of fevers and enthusiasms. Without such vigor, he might as well be out picking peaches or digging ditches; God knows it'd be better for his health.
You can't try to do things; you simply must do them.
Real hunger is when one man regards another man as something to eat.
Faust complained about having two souls in his breast, but I harbor a whole crowd of them and they quarrel. It is like being in a republic.
If the land mechanism as a whole is good then every part is good, whether we understand it or not.
All wars are boyish, and are fought by boys.
[Government] regulation is an imperfect substitute for the accountability, and trust, built into a market in which food producers meet the gaze of eaters and vice versa.
A MAN WITH A CONVICTION is a hard man to change. Tell him you disagree and he turns away. Show him facts or figures and he questions your sources. Appeal to logic and he fails to see your point.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.