“At least once in his career, every fireman gets an itch.  What do the books say, he wonders.  Oh to scratch that itch, eh?  Well, Montag, take my word for it, I’ve had to read a few in my time, to know what I was about, and the books say nothing!  Nothing you can teach or believe.  They’re about nonexistent people, figments of imagination, if they’re fiction.  And if they’re nonfiction, it’s worse, one professor calling another an idiot, one philosopher screaming down another’s gullet.  All of them running about, putting out the stars and extinguishing the sun.  You come away lost.”-pg. 62

This passage is the very essence of what Ray Bradbury is trying to prevent from happening.  It shows that Beatty (who says it) does not think about books in the way they’re supposed to be thought of.  They are supposed to be seen as a way to look at life and to learn from the mistakes that these characters (fiction or nonfiction) have made in their lives.  This is literally saying that books are not real, but television and other forms of media are.  It says that because it is made up, or fake or it takes longer to process and requires thought, it is wrong.  Of course, this is completely wrong and books are an excellent thing.

“Go home and think of your first husband divorced and your second husband killed in a jet and your third husband blowing his brains ou, go home and think of the dozen abortions you’ve had, go home and think of that your damn Caesarian sections, too, and your children who hate your guts!  Go home and think how it all happened and what did you ever do to stop it?  Go home, go home!”-pg. 101

“They read the long afternoon through, while the cold November rain fell from the sky upon the quiet house.  They sat in the hall because the parlor was so empty and gray-looking without its wall lit with orange and yellow confetti and skyrockets and women in gold mesh dresses and men in black velvet pulling one-hundred-pound rabbits from silver hats.”-pg.71

This quote is when Mildred and Montag are reading the forbidden books in the quiet of their house.  The house is like a haven for reading when everything outside is bleak and gloomy.  It is raining outside, so that is the government, which is sad and depressed (artificial happiness), while inside the house with books, everybody is happy.  The rain is trying to get into the house but it can not because it is strong and resistant.

“Classics cut to fit fifteen-minute radio shows, then cut again to fill a two-minute book column, winding up at last as a ten- or twelve-line dictionary resume.  I exaggerate, of course.  The dictionaries were for reference.”-pg. 54

Captain Beatty is describing the evolution of digests and media to Montag and Mildred.  They listen to him, but Montag finally realizes that it’s wrong to burn these books because of everything Clarisse stood for, even after she died.

“Once as a child he had sat upon a yellow dune by the sea in the middle of the blue and hot summer day, cousin had said, ‘Fill the sieve and you’ll get a dime!’ And the faster he poured, the farter it sifter through with a hot whispering.  His hands were tired, the sand was boiling, the sieve was empty.”-pg. 78

This quote is describing Montag’s mind.  The more he tries to put knowledge into his mind, the more it comes out.  He just ends up with an empty mind and tears in his eyes.  He knows that now he has to make a conscious effort to keep this knowledge in his mind.

“I’ve had two children by Caesarian section.  No use going through all that agony for a baby.  The world must reproduce, you know, the race must go on.  Besides, they sometimes look just like you, and that’s nice.  Two Caesarians turned the trick, yes, sire.  Oh, my doctor said, Caesarians aren’t necessary; you’ve got the hips for it, everything’s normal, but I insisted.”-pg. 96

Mrs. Bowles is describing her children and how she had them.  Of course, Mrs. Bowles is one of those people who thinks that it is crazy to go through pain just to have a baby. She does not feel that she is a motherly type.  She is cruel to these children because she doesn’t love them.  She does not want to love them and she does not want to care for them.

“’I’ve tried to remember,’ said Montag. ‘But, hell, it’s gone when I turn my head.  God, how I want something to say to the Captain.  He’s read enough so he has all the answers, or seems to have.  His voice is like butter.  I’m afraid he’ll talk me back the other way I was.  Only a week ago, pumping a kerosene hose, I thought: God, what fun!’”-pg. 89

Montag is amazed with how much he has changed since he met Clarisse.  Those few minutes he talked to her for the first time, he was completely changed, unable to go back.  He is happy, but he’s also happy that he is now on the right side and thinking about things in ways he never would before he met Clarisse and read the books.