Science fiction author Ray Bradbury sits in front of a photo of Mars, presented to him during an 83rd birthday party in his honor on Aug. 23, 2003.
Ray Bradbury, master of the sci-fi fantasy and author of Fahrenheit 451, died Tuesday at 91.
The man who chronicled dystopian societies had strong political beliefs and spoke as darkly about contemporary politics as he did about burning books.
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"I think our country is in need of a revolution," the Los Angeles Times quoted him as saying in 2010. "There is too much government today. We've got to remember the government should be by the people, of the people and for the people."
A Ohio Tea Party blog later quoted him on it, and the conservative blog All American Blogger wrote: "I think Ray is ready to lead the Tea Party movement."
Bradbury also had some choice words for our nation's presidents.
On Bush: "He's wonderful. We needed him." - Interview with Salon, 2001
On Clinton: "Clinton is a sh*thead and we're glad to be rid of him. And I'm not talking about his sexual exploits. I think we have a chance to do something about education... We should have done it years ago." - Interview with Salon, 2001
On Reagan: "Reagan was our greatest president. He lowered our taxes and gave the money back to the people." - At Comic-Con in 2010
On Obama: "He should be announcing that we should go back to the moon... We should never have left there. We should go to the moon and prepare a base to fire a rocket off to Mars and then go to Mars and colonize Mars. Then when we do that, we will live forever." - Quoted in Los Angeles Times in 2010
According to fan site Bradbury Media, the writer once declared in an interview all politicians to be fools.
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Elizabeth Flock is a staff writer for U.S. News & World Report. You can contact her at eflock@usnews.com or follow her on Twitter and Facebook.
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