“Dominick Burns was a literature lover and autodidact who compensated for his lack of education by insisting his grandchildren be well read. Dad was his prize student, though the fifty-cent pieces awarded for reciting a Shakespeare sonnet from memory was incentive enough. My father and his younger brother John would become well-known writers, and both credited their “poppa” as a major influence. Like Dominick Burns, I also lacked formal education, and though I can’t blame a famine for not getting past the tenth grade, I can credit my becoming a voracious reader to my shame as a dropout.”
―
Griffin Dunne,
The Friday Afternoon Club: A Family Memoir
