Hey, do you mind if I tell you a story, one you might not have heard?

All the elements in your body were forged many, many millions of years ago in the heart of a faraway star that exploded and died. that explosion scattered those elements across the desolation of deep space. After so, so many millions of years, these elements came together to form new stars and new planets — and on and on it went. The elements came together and burst apart, forming shoes and ships and sealing wax, and cabbages and kings. Until eventually they came together to make you. You are unique in the universe. There is only one you, and there will never be another.

Someones always got it worse off than you, be thankful for what you’ve got and help who you can.

All is well, I am as I should be

I don’t paint things. I only paint the difference between things.

Now there are several people sitting here today who will be living on Mars 20 or 30 years from now. I really envy you. I wish I could be alive the day that we land on Mars-with real people. I was out here at Jet Propulsion Lab a few years ago, when the Viking Lander landed. And I was there with Carl Sagan and Bruce Murray, and a lot of other wonderful people. And after the first pictures came back from Mars, Roy Neill at NBC interviewed me. And he said, “Mr. Bradbury, how does it feel? You’ve been writing about Mars for 30 years; that they have civilizations up there-peculiar people, Martians. And we’re up there now, and there’s nothing on Mars. There are no cities. There are no Martians. And I said to him, “Fool, fool! There are Martians on Mars-and it is us! From here on in, we will be the Martians.” I’d like to believe that on some night, 50, 60 years from now, that when some of you are on Mars, that you’ll carry with you-please do-a copy of The Martian Chronicles, which is totally unscientific. It’s a Greek myth, it’s a Roman myth, it’s an Egyptian myth, it’s a Norse edda. And that’s why the damn thing is still around. I didn’t deal with the facts. I dealt with the dream. And some night, teach your children, on Mars, to read the books under the blankets with the flashlight. And in the meantime, they’re looking out at Mars, and the only Martians that are out there will be you. I envy you about that.

You get yourself a good typewriter, go to the library-live there. Live in the library. See, I didn’t go to school, but I went to the library. And I’ve stayed there for the last 50 years or so. When I was in my 40’s, I had no money for an office. I was wandering around UCLA one day, 35 years ago, and I heard typing down below-in the basement of the library. And I went down to see what was going on. I found there was a typing room down there. And for 10 cents for a half an hour, I could rent a typewriter. I said, “My God. This is great! I don’t have an office. I’ll move in here with a bunch of students. And I’ll write!” So, I got a bag full of dimes, and in the next nine days-I spent $9.80-and I wrote Fahrenheit 451.

It’s going to be ok. This is going to work.

The majority of men meet with failure because of their lack of persistence in creating new plans to take the place of those which fail.

‎I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.