the synesthetic approach...................

      His instinctive approach to the library was synesthetic:  books were sensed by smell and look and touch, and only then could the reading process be contemplated.  It was only natural, therefore, that the chosen book's characters would come alive for him through all his senses: "quite suddenly, a man or a woman or a child leapt off the page and stood there with you in the immense silence.  Then you sat with them for an hour and ran with them and laughed and wept with them."  In this way his lifelong love of literature began.  His enthusiasm for adaptation and for breaking down genre barriers has its roots in this same crossing of sensations; to "see" the book, to "read" the movie, and to "hear" the staged play have always been natural extensions of the traditional forms for Bradbury.  This openness to all the possibilities of a creative idea was formed at an early age, and the gift proved to be both a blessing and a frustration as Bradbury extended his storytelling genius into other genres and media forms.

-Jonathan R. Eller, Becoming Ray Bradbury