Literature to Life Awards Ray Bradbury
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
I think that what you are doing is very important because it is two things at the center of my life: the library and the theatre. You're combining them.
I want to teach people that I don't use discipline, I use passion. You are speaking to the world's greatest lover here. I discovered that I was alive when I was twelve years old and I was in love with life. So I began to write when I was twelve and I never stopped.
Do what you love and love what you do. Don't pick things that other people want you to do you gotta do what you want. And libraries are the center of education. They are more important than any schools, colleges or universities because you can go to a library and educate yourself. A lot of people can't afford to go to college, but they can go to the library, because it's free. You open a book off the shelf and it's a mirror. It's either you, or it isn't you.
And if I can teach young people what fun it is to live in the library, and what fun it is to go the theatre... well I think it is wonderful to be in the theatre with you.
I want to thank The American Place Theatre for this wonderful award because it means a lot in my life. It means that I got where I wanted to go when I was just 12 years old. So you told me that I'm a poet and a thinker and a lover. Thank you very much.
Excerpted from a transcript of a video interview with Executive Director, David Kener.
Coming Spring 2011
