"If they give you ruled paper, write the other way." — Juan Ramón Jiménez
FAHRENHEIT 451: the temperature at which book-paper catches fire and burns
Dedication
This one, with gratitude, is for Don Congdon
First words
It was a pleasure to burn.
(Italian) Era una gioia appiccare il fuoco.
(Spanish) Constituía un placer especial ver las cosas consumidas, ver los objetos ennegrecidos y cambiados.
Quotations
The autumn leaves blew over the moonlit pavement in such a way as to make the girl who was moving there seem fixed to a sliding walk, letting the motion of the wind and the leaves carry her forward.
He almost thought he heard the motion of her hands as she walked, and the infinitely small sound now, the white stir of her face turning when she discovered she was a moment away from a man who stood in the middle of the pavement waiting.
"Isn't this a nice time of night to walk? I like to smell things and look at things, and sometimes stay up all night, walking, and watch the sun rise."
There must be something in books, things we can't imagine, to make a woman stay in a burning house; there must be something there. You don't stay for nothing.