Tributes have been pouring in for Ray Bradbury since he died Tuesday night.
Here are a few:
In a statement, President Obama said, “His gift for storytelling reshaped our culture and expanded our world. But Ray also understood that our imaginations could be used as a tool for better understanding, a vehicle for change, and an expression of our most cherished values.”
Steven Spielberg: “He was my muse for the better part of my sci-fi career. He lives on through his legion of fans. In the world of science fiction and fantasy and imagination he is immortal.”
Stephen King: “The sound I hear today is the thunder of a giant’s footsteps fading away. But the novels and stories remain, in all their resonance and strange beauty.”
Neil Gaiman, who also posted a recording of himself reading “The Man Who Forgot Ray Bradbury,” wrote on his blog that Bradbury’s death had “knocked me for a loop. If you want to quote me, you can take anything you like from this, and add that he was kind, and gentle, and always filled with enthusiasm, and that the landscape of the world we live in would have been diminished if we had not had him in our world.”
Margaret Atwood tweeted: “So sad to hear of Ray Bradbury’s death. @Sam__Weller + I planned to visit him just before ComicCon. Shadow Show tribute made him happy.”
Joe Hill: “Poet-king Ray Bradbury, who wrote not with ink but dandelion wine, is off adventuring again. We’ll miss you. Shoot a dinosaur for us, Ray.”
Caitlin R. Kiernan: “I just got the news of Ray Bradbury’s death. Hard to even believe. Harlan Ellison introduced me to him, while Ray Harryhausen watched on.”
John Scalzi, president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America: “Simply put, it is the end of an era. Ray was more than just an author, more than just a Grand Master. He was one of the pillars of our community. It is no coincidence that one of our major awards is named after him, the Ray Bradbury Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation. It is impossible to count the number of authors who have been influenced by his work.”
Adam Savage: “The great, the one and only, the irreplaceable Ray Bradbury has left this mortal coil. He was Super important to how I think as a person.”
NASA has released two videos from its archives to pay tribute to Bradbury. You can see them at Space.com
Amazing, Bradbury was a spectacular writer, and is a spectacular influence over the new writers.