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
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Ray Bradbury at Caltech, 2000
A commencement address about passion, libraries, imagination, family love, and moving humanity toward the stars.
Speech arc
- 01Hollywood childhood
Opening move
- 02Buck Rogers
Speech beat
- 03Ignore critics
Speech beat
- 04Write at twelve
Speech beat
- 05New York manuscripts
Speech beat
- 06The Martian Chronicles
Speech beat
- 07Fahrenheit 451
Speech beat
- 08Get to Mars
Final charge
Childhood: A boy chooses the future
Bradbury recalls poverty, Hollywood, and the Buck Rogers comic strip that gave him a future he briefly abandoned when critics mocked him.
Hollywood
At thirteen he roller-skates through Hollywood looking for famous people and collecting signs of possibility.
Buck Rogers
The comic strip opens a future of moon, Mars, and universe-sized imagination.
Recovery
After tearing up the strips, he realizes he has torn up his future and begins collecting again.
Bradbury recalls poverty, Hollywood, and the Buck Rogers comic strip that gave him a future he briefly abandoned when critics mocked him.
Writing life: Passion becomes the method
Bradbury urges graduates to make a list of doubters, gather believers, and follow passion with stubborn daily work.
Practice
He begins writing at twelve and keeps writing stories about space before knowing what they will become.
Risk
He travels by Greyhound to New York with manuscripts and little money.
Breakthrough
An editor sees that his Mars stories can become The Martian Chronicles.
Bradbury urges graduates to make a list of doubters, gather believers, and follow passion with stubborn daily work.
Library: Free institutions make imagination possible
Bradbury celebrates libraries as places where a poor writer can learn, work, and even rent the typewriter time needed to create Fahrenheit 451.
Access
Libraries substitute for the college education he could not afford.
Craft
Rented typewriters and daily discipline turn imagination into books.
Gratitude
The speech repeatedly returns to parents, spouses, teachers, and believers who carry a life forward.
Bradbury celebrates libraries as places where a poor writer can learn, work, and even rent the typewriter time needed to create Fahrenheit 451.
• Key takeaways •
Passion outruns poverty
Connects to passion.
Critics can be ignored
Connects to perseverance.
Libraries open worlds
Connects to space travel.
Family love matters
Connects to writing.
Imagination serves the future
Connects to family love.
Closing charge
The closing charge links personal passion to humanity's future: love your work, love your family, celebrate existence, and help the species move outward.
Move toward Mars
Space
Bradbury treats space travel as part adventure, part survival, and part spiritual calling.
Witness
Humans are here to witness and celebrate the universe.
Charge
Do not listen to fools; move into the future with passion.
The closing charge links personal passion to humanity's future: love your work, love your family, celebrate existence, and help the species move outward.
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Transcript
The full transcript is hosted by the original publisher. Commencement Archive links to the source rather than republishing copyrighted text.
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
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