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Your Majesties, Your Royal
Highnesses, Ladies and Gentlemen,
There are five hundred reasons why I began to write for children, but to
save time I will mention only ten of them.
Number 1) Children read
books, not reviews. They don't give a hoot about the critics.
Number
2) Children don't read to find their identity.
Number 3) They don't
read to free themselves of guilt, to quench the thirst for
rebellion, or to get rid of alienation.
Number 4) They have no use
for psychology.
Number 5) They detest sociology.
Number 6) They
don't try to understand Kafka or Finnegans Wake.
Number 7) They
still believe in God, the family, angels, devils, witches, goblins,
logic, clarity, punctuation, and other such obsolete stuff.
Number
8) They love interesting stories, not commentary, guides, or
footnotes.
Number 9) When a book is boring, they yawn openly,
without any shame or fear of authority.
Number 10) They don't expect
their beloved writer to redeem humanity. Young as they are, they
know that it is not in his power. Only the adults have such childish
illusions. |
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