№ 2000.002 — Caltech — Commencement address
Ray Bradbury
Field: letters
Ray Bradbury recounts his early life of poverty, his decision to become a writer despite never attending college, and the formative moments that shaped his career, including resuming his Buck Rogers comic collection after critics discouraged him. He urges graduates to reject doubters, follow their passion, use the library, and embrace life with celebration. He emphasizes space travel as essential to humanity's immortality, encourages students to express love to their families, and frames their purpose as witnessing and celebrating the universe.
Key moments
- 01 Childhood roller-skating encounter with W.C. Fields and growing up poor in the Depression
- 02 Tearing up and reclaiming his Buck Rogers comics, learning not to listen to critics
- 03 Selling The Martian Chronicles and writing Fahrenheit 451 on rented library typewriters
- 04 Urging graduates to follow their passion and ignore people who don't believe in them
- 05 Calling on young men to embrace their fathers and express love
- 06 Arguing space travel matters for the immortality of the human race
Transcript
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Read the full transcript at source →Provenance
Imported from NPR commencement archive; cross-referenced with Open Commencement DB
NPR archive last updated in 2015; destination availability has not been exhaustively rechecked | Open Commencement DB transcript; not independently verified against the original recording