'Dandelion Wine' became one of the few books that I returned to time and again, and while not anywhere near the story crafter as Mr. Bradbury, I hope I managed to absorb by osmosis some of his techniques.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I have even written a book about Wine called The Grapes of Ralph.
My mother had a book club that would dissolve into opening wine.
Fairly early in my career, I had a passion for wine just as a consumer, and I started to learn about the whole process, starting with a piece of raw ground, and ending up with a work of art in a bottle.
I first encountered Bradbury's writing when I was pretty young. He's a great bridge author between young-adult fiction and literature.
My books are water; those of the great geniuses are wine - everybody drinks water.
I have a slightly contrarian streak as a writer, and one of the things I was interested in was how distilled could I make a life, and how I could cross what is kind of trivialized as a domestic novel with a novel of ideas, a philosophical novel.
I wrote a book called The Taste of New Wine because I couldn't find a book that talked about the reality of the situation and how we were dishonest and afraid.
I am becoming increasingly difficult to please as a reader, but I adore being surprised by a really wonderful book, written by someone I've never heard of before.
My books are like water; those of the great geniuses are wine. (Fortunately) everybody drinks water.
I've yet to meet a writer who could change water into wine, and we have a tendency to treat them like that.