(If you are interested in my thoughts about this novel, read my review on Ruthless Reading)
The book ends with an Afterword, in which Ray Bradbury writes about his approach to writing. For me, this was fascinating stuff. I have just selected a few nuggets from the Afterword. If you want more, you will have to read the book yourself.
Ray Bradbury on writing
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on the way he writes novels:
Starting with very simple things, they then word-associate themselves with further things until I’m up and running..
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on accumulating material:
.. as I sat at my typewriter quite suddenly there would be bursts of surprise, resulting in short stories or longer narratives that I then connected together.
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on friendships with old people:
.. I followed them and questioned them and learned from them ..
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on characters and plots:
I do not try to steer my characters; I let them live their lives and speak their truths as quickly as possible.
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on inspiration:
When I go to bed at night I give myself instructions to startle myself when I wake in the morning.
Ruth Livingstone 
Hmm, I agree with all he says, I work much like that myself. Wish I could write even marginally as wonderfully. “Dandelion wine” is my favorite book.
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Ray Bradbury made me want to become a writer.
I actually wrote him a fan letter when I was 12 because I so loved his work — and he wrote back! I still have, and treasure, that card. It made me realize that even someone whose work I idolized was a human being. Then I became a writer; my second NF book out in April.
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