Hi everybody. So my name is Mac. My job is that I lie to children, but they're honest lies.
Pozdrav svima. Moje ime je Mac. Moj posao je lagati djeci, ali to su iskrene laži.
I write children's books, and there's a quote from Pablo Picasso, "We all know that Art is not truth. Art is a lie that makes us realize truth or at least the truth that is given us to understand. The artist must know the manner whereby to convince others of the truthfulness of his lies."
Pišem dječje knjige, i postoji citat Pabla Picassa, "Svi znamo da umjetnost nije istina. Umjetnost je laž koja nam pomaže spoznati istinu ili barem istinu koju možemo razumjeti. Umjetnik mora znati način kojim uvjeriti druge u istinitost svojih laži."
I first heard this when I was a kid, and I loved it, but I had no idea what it meant. (Laughter)
Ovo sam prvo čuo kada sam bio dijete, i svidjelo mi se, ali nisam imao pojma što znači. (Smijeh)
So I thought, you know what, it's what I'm here to talk to you today about, though, truth and lies, fiction and reality. So how could I untangle this knotted bunch of sentences? And I said, I've got PowerPoint. Let's do a Venn diagram. ["Truth. Lies."] (Laughter) So there it is, right there, boom. We've got truth and lies and then there's this little space, the edge, in the middle. That liminal space, that's art. All right. Venn diagram. (Laughter) (Applause)
Pa sam pomislio, znate što, danas sam ovdje da bih vam o tome pričao, istina i laži, fikcija i stvarnost. Kako mogu otpetljati ovu zapetljanu gomilu rečenica? I rekao sam si imam PowerPoint. Napravimo Vennov dijagram. ["Istina. Laži."] (Smijeh) Evo ga, točno tu, bum. Imamo istinu i laži i onda ovaj mali prostor, rub, u sredini. Taj rubni prostor, to je umjetnost. U redu. Vennov dijagram. (Smijeh) (Pljesak)
But that's actually not very helpful either. The thing that made me understand that quote and really kind of what art, at least the art of fiction, was, was working with kids. I used to be a summer camp counselor. I would do it on my summers off from college, and I loved it. It was a sports summer camp for four- to six-year-olds. I was in charge of the four-year-olds, which is good, because four-year-olds can't play sports, and neither can I. (Laughter) I play sports at a four-year-old level, so what would happen is the kids would dribble around some cones, and then got hot, and then they would go sit underneath the tree where I was already sitting — (Laughter) — and I would just make up stories and tell them to them and I would tell them stories about my life. I would tell them about how, on the weekends, I would go home and I would spy for the Queen of England. And soon, other kids who weren't even in my group of kids, they would come up to me, and they would say, "You're Mac Barnett, right? You're the guy who spies for the Queen of England." And I had been waiting my whole life for strangers to come up and ask me that question. In my fantasy, they were svelte Russian women, but, you know, four-year-olds — you take what you can get in Berkeley, California.
Ali ni to baš puno ne pomaže. Ono što mi je omogućilo da shvatim taj citat i zapravo tu vrstu umjetnosti, barem umjetnost fikcije, bilo je raditi s djecom. Bio sam savjetnik u ljetnom kampu. Radio sam to preko ljeta za vrijeme fakulteta, i svidjelo mi se. Bio je to sportski ljetni kamp za djecu od četiri do šest godina. Bio sam zadužen za četverogodišnjake, što je dobro, jer četverogodišnjaci se ne mogu baviti sportom, kao ni ja. (Smijeh) Bavim se sportom na razini četverogodišnjaka, i dogodilo bi se da bi djeca vodila loptu oko čunjeva, zagrijala se. i onda bi sjela pod drvo gdje sam ja već sjedio — (Smijeh) — i izmišljao bih priče i pričao im ih i pričao bi im priče o svom životu. Pričao bih im kako vikendom idem kući i špijuniram za kraljicu Engleske. I uskoro, druga djeca koja uopće nisu bila u mojoj grupi, dolazila bi do mene, i rekla bi, "Ti si Mac Barnett, zar ne? Ti si tip koji špijunira za Kraljicu Engleske." I čekao sam cijeli život da mi stranci priđu i postave to pitanje. U mojoj fantaziji, to su bile graciozne Ruskinje, ali znate, četverogodišnjaci — uzmete što možete u Berkeleyu, California.
And I realized that the stories that I was telling were real in this way that was familiar to me and really exciting. I think the pinnacle of this for me — I'll never forget this — there was this little girl named Riley. She was tiny, and she used to always take out her lunch every day and she would throw out her fruit. She would just take her fruit, her mom packed her a melon every day, and she would just throw it in the ivy and then she would eat fruit snacks and pudding cups, and I was like, "Riley, you can't do that, you have to eat the fruit." And she was like, "Why?" And I was like, "Well, when you throw the fruit in the ivy, pretty soon, it's going to be overgrown with melons," which is why I think I ended up telling stories to children and not being a nutritionist for children. And so Riley was like, "That will never happen. That's not going to happen." And so, on the last day of camp, I got up early and I got a big cantaloupe from the grocery store and I hid it in the ivy, and then at lunchtime, I was like, "Riley, why don't you go over there and see what you've done." And — (Laughter) — she went trudging through the ivy, and then her eyes just got so wide, and she pointed out this melon that was bigger than her head, and then all the kids ran over there and rushed around her, and one of the kids was like, "Hey, why is there a sticker on this?" (Laughter) And I was like, "That is also why I say do not throw your stickers in the ivy. Put them in the trash can. It ruins nature when you do this." And Riley carried that melon around with her all day, and she was so proud.
Shvatio sam da priče koje pričam su stvarne na način koji mi je bio poznat i zaista uzbudljive. Mislim da je vrhunac ovoga za mene — Ovo neću nikad zaboraviti — bila mala djevojčica imena Riley. Bila je sitna i uvijek je vadila svoj ručak i bacila bi svoje voće. Uzela bi voće, mama joj je pakirala dinju, i bacila bi je u bršljan i onda bi jela grickalice od voća i puding, i rekao sam joj, "Riley, ne možeš to raditi, moraš jesti voće." I pitala me, "Zašto?" I ja sam rekao, "Pa kako bacaš voće u bršljan, uskoro će biti pun dinja", zbog čega mislim da sam završio pričajući priče djeci a ne kao nutricionist za djecu. I Riley je rekla: "To se nikad neće dogoditi. To se neće dogoditi". I tako sam zadnjeg dana u kampu, ustao se rano i uzeo svarno veliku dinju iz trgovine namirnicama i sakrio je u bršljan, i za vrijeme ručka rekao sam, "Riley, zašto ne odeš tamo i pogledaš što si učinila." I — (Smijeh) — kopala je po bršljanu, i onda su njene oči postale tako raširene, i pokazala je dinju veću od njene glave, i sva djeca su dotrčala i okupila se oko nje, i jedno dijete je reklo, "Hej, zašto je cijena na ovome?" (Smijeh) I ja sam rekao, "To je razlog zašto govorim ne bacajte svoje naljepnice u bršljan. Bacajte ih u kantu. Ovako uništavate prirodu." I Riley je sa sobom nosila dinju čitav dan, i bila je tako ponosna.
And Riley knew she didn't grow a melon in seven days, but she also knew that she did, and it's a weird place, but it's not just a place that kids can get to. It's anything. Art can get us to that place. She was right in that place in the middle, that place which you could call art or fiction. I'm going to call it wonder. It's what Coleridge called the willing suspension of disbelief or poetic faith, for those moments where a story, no matter how strange, has some semblance of the truth, and then you're able to believe it. It's not just kids who can get there. Adults can too, and we get there when we read. It's why in two days, people will be descending on Dublin to take the walking tour of Bloomsday and see everything that happened in "Ulysses," even though none of that happened. Or people go to London and they visit Baker Street to see Sherlock Holmes' apartment, even though 221B is just a number that was painted on a building that never actually had that address. We know these characters aren't real, but we have real feelings about them, and we're able to do that. We know these characters aren't real, and yet we also know that they are.
I Riley je znala da nije uzgojila dinju u sedam dana, ali je isto tako znala da jest, i to je čudno mjesto, ali nije samo mjesto za djecu. To je bilo što. Umjetnost nas tamo može odvesti. Bila je točno na tom mjestu u sredini, tom mjestu koje možete zvati umjetnost ili fikcija. Nazvat ću to čudo. To je ono što je Coleridge nazvao suspenzija nevjerovanja, ili poetska vjera, za one trenutke kada priča, kako god čudna bila, ima neke sličnosti s istinom, i onda možete u nju vjerovati. Nisu samo djeca ta koja mogu doći tamo. Odrasli također mogu, i to postižemo čitanjem. Zato će za dva dana ljudi stići u Dublin da bi prošetali turom Bloomsdaya i vidjeli sve što se dogodilo u "Uliksu", iako se to nije dogodilo. Ili ljudi idu u London i posjete Baker Street da vide stan Sherlocka Holmesa, iako je 221B samo broj koji je napisan na zgradu koja nikad nije imala tu adresu. Znamo da ti likovi nisu stvarni, ali imamo stvarne osjećaje o njima, i možemo to napraviti. Znamo da ti likovi nisu stvarni, a također znamo i da jesu.
Kids can get there a lot more easily than adults can, and that's why I love writing for kids. I think kids are the best audience for serious literary fiction. When I was a kid, I was obsessed with secret door novels, things like "Narnia," where you would open a wardrobe and go through to a magical land. And I was convinced that secret doors really did exist and I would look for them and try to go through them. I wanted to live and cross over into that fictional world, which is — I would always just open people's closet doors. (Laughter) I would just go through my mom's boyfriend's closet, and there was not a secret magical land there. There was some other weird stuff that I think my mom should know about. (Laughter) And I was happy to tell her all about it.
Djeca tamo mogu doći lakše od odraslih, i zato volim pisati za djecu. Mislim da su djeca najbolja publika za ozbiljnu književnu fikciju. Kada sam bio dijete, bio sam opsjednut knjigama o tajnim vratima, stvari kao "Narnia," gdje bi otvorili ormar i ušli u čarobnu zemlju. I bio sam uvjeren da tajna vrata zaista postoje i tražio bi ih i pokušao proći kroz njih. Želio sam živjeti i preći u taj fikcijski svijet, koji je Otvarao bih ljudima vrata ormara. (Smijeh) Gledao bih u ormar dečka moje majke, i tamo nije bilo tajne čarobne zemlje ondje. Bilo je drugih čudnih stvari za koje mislim da bi majka trebala znati. (Smijeh) I bio sam sretan reći joj sve o tome.
After college, my first job was working behind one of these secret doors. This is a place called 826 Valencia. It's at 826 Valencia Street in the Mission in San Francisco, and when I worked there, there was a publishing company headquartered there called McSweeney's, a nonprofit writing center called 826 Valencia, but then the front of it was a strange shop. You see, this place was zoned retail, and in San Francisco, they were not going to give us a variance, and so the writer who founded it, a writer named Dave Eggers, to come into compliance with code, he said, "Fine, I'm just going to build a pirate supply store." And that's what he did. (Laughter) And it's beautiful. It's all wood. There's drawers you can pull out and get citrus so you don't get scurvy. They have eyepatches in lots of colors, because when it's springtime, pirates want to go wild. You don't know. Black is boring. Pastel. Or eyes, also in lots of colors, just glass eyes, depending on how you want to deal with that situation. And the store, strangely, people came to them and bought things, and they ended up paying the rent for our tutoring center, which was behind it, but to me, more important was the fact that I think the quality of work you do, kids would come and get instruction in writing, and when you have to walk this weird, liminal, fictional space like this to go do your writing, it's going to affect the kind of work that you make. It's a secret door that you can walk through.
Poslije fakulteta, moj prvi posao bio je raditi iza tih tajnih vrata. Ovo je mjesto imena 826 Valencia. To je u Valencia ulici 826 u Misiji u San Franciscu, i kad sam tamo radio, ondje je bila smještena itdavačka kuća imena McSweeney's, neprofitni centar za pisanje imena 826 Valencia, ali ispred nalazila se čudna trgovina. Vidite, ovo je bila trgovinska zona, i u San Franciscu, nisu radili iznimke, i tako je pisac koji ih je osnovao, pisac imena Dave Eggers, da bi se uskladio s pravilima, rekao je: "U redu, otvorit ću trgovinu sa namirnicima za pirate." I to je učinio. (Smijeh) I prekrasno je. Cijela u drvu. Imate ladice koje možete otvoriti i uzeti limun da ne dobijete skorbut. Imaju poveze za oči u puno boja, jer kada je proljeće, gusari žele podivljati. Ne znate. Crna je dosadna. Pastelna. Ili oči, također u mnogo boja, staklenih očiju, ovisno o tome kako se želite nositi sa situacijom. I trgovina, začudo, ljudi su došli i kupovali stvari, i na kraju su platili stanarinu za naš centar za podučavanje, koji je bio iza trgovine. ali za mene je važnija bila činjenica da mislim da kvaliteta posla koji činite, djeca bi došla i dobila poduku iz pisanja, i kad morate prošetati čudnim, graničnim, fikcijskim prostorom da biste pisali, to će utjecati na vrstu rada koji stvarate. To su tajna vrata kroz koja možete proći.
So I ran the 826 in Los Angeles, and it was my job to build the store down there. So we have The Echo Park Time Travel Mart. That's our motto: "Whenever you are, we're already then." (Laughter) And it's on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles. Our friendly staff is ready to help you. They're from all eras, including just the 1980s, that guy on the end, he's from the very recent past. There's our Employees of the Month, including Genghis Khan, Charles Dickens. Some great people have come up through our ranks. This is our kind of pharmacy section. We have some patent medicines, Canopic jars for your organs, communist soap that says, "This is your soap for the year." (Laughter) Our slushy machine broke on the opening night and we didn't know what to do. Our architect was covered in red syrup. It looked like he had just murdered somebody, which it was not out of the question for this particular architect, and we didn't know what to do. It was going to be the highlight of our store. So we just put that sign on it that said, "Out of order. Come back yesterday." (Laughter) And that ended up being a better joke than slushies, so we just left it there forever. Mammoth Chunks. These things weigh, like, seven pounds each. Barbarian repellent. It's full of salad and potpourri — things that barbarians hate. Dead languages. (Laughter) Leeches, nature's tiny doctors. And Viking Odorant, which comes in lots of great scents: toenails, sweat and rotten vegetables, pyre ash. Because we believe that Axe Body Spray is something that you should only find on the battlefield, not under your arms. (Laughter) And these are robot emotion chips, so robots can feel love or fear. Our biggest seller is Schadenfreude, which we did not expect. (Laughter) We did not think that was going to happen. But there's a nonprofit behind it, and kids go through a door that says "Employees Only" and they end up in this space where they do homework and write stories and make films and this is a book release party where kids will read. There's a quarterly that's published with just writing that's done by the kids who come every day after school, and we have release parties and they eat cake and read for their parents and drink milk out of champagne glasses. And it's a very special space, because it's this weird space in the front. The joke isn't a joke. You can't find the seams on the fiction, and I love that. It's this little bit of fiction that's colonized the real world. I see it as kind of a book in three dimensions.
Vodio sam 826 u Los Angelesu, i bio je moj posao da izgradim tu trgovinu dolje. Tako da imamo Trgovinu Putovanja kroz vrijeme Echo Park. To je naš moto, "Kad god ste vi, mi smo već tada." (Smijeh) I nalazi se na Sunset Bulevaru u Los Angelesu. Naše prijateljsko osoblje spremno je pomoći vam. Oni su iz svih era, ukljućujući i 1980-te, onaj tip na kraju, on je iz nedavne prošlosti. Ono su naši zaposlenici mjeseca, uključujući Džingis Kana, Charlesa Dickensa. Neki veliki ljudi prošli su kroz naše redove. Ovo je naša farmacijska sekcija. Imamo patentirane lijekove, Kanpoejske posude za organe, komunistički sapun koji kaže: "Ovo je tvoj sapun za ovu godinu." (Smijeh) Naš aparat za ledeni sok se pokvario na večer otvaranja i nismo znali što činiti. Naš arhitekt bio je pokriven crvenim sirupom. Izgledalo je kao da je upravo nekoga ubio. što nije bilo isključeno za ovog arhitekta, i nismo znali što učiniti. To je trebala biti atrakcija. Tako da smo stavili znak koji kaže, "Ne radi. Dođite jučer." (Smijeh) I to je na kraju bila bolja šala od soka, tako da smo je ostavili ondje zauvijek. Komadi mamuta. Ove stvari su teške tri kilograma svaka. Rastjerivač barbara. Pun je salate i potpurija — stvari koje barbari mrze. Mrtvi jezici. (Smijeh) Pijavice, maleni doktori iz prirode. I Vikinški dezodorans, koji dolazi u puno odličnih vrsta: nožni nokti, znoj i pokvareno povrće, pepeo s lomače. Jer vjerujemo da Axe (sjekira) sprej za tijelo je nešto što trebate naći samo na bojištu, ne ispod vaših ruku. (Smijeh) I ovo su emocijski čipovi robota, tako da roboti mogu osjetiti ljubav ili strah. Najprodavaniji je zluradost, što nismo očekivali. (Smijeh) Nismo mislili da će se to dogoditi. Ali iza toga je neprofitna udruga, i djeca prođu kroz vrata "Samo za zaposlenike" i završe u ovom prostoru gdje rade zadaću i pišu priče i rade filmove i ovo je zabava zbog objave knjige gdje će djeca čitati. Postoji tromjesečnik koji se objavljuje sa radovima koje pišu djeca koja dolaze poslije škole, i imamo zabave objavljivanja i jedu kolače i čitaju svojim roditeljima i piju mlijeko iz čaša za šampanjac. I to je vrlo posebno mjesto, jer je to ovaj čudni prostor ispred. Šala nije šala. Ne možete naći šavove fikcije, i volim to. To je ta mala količina fikcije koja je kolonizrala stvarni svijet. Vidim to kao knjigu u tri dimenzije.
There's a term called metafiction, and that's just stories about stories, and meta's having a moment now. Its last big moment was probably in the 1960s with novelists like John Barth and William Gaddis, but it's been around. It's almost as old as storytelling itself. And one metafictive technique is breaking the fourth wall. Right? It's when an actor will turn to the audience and say, "I am an actor, these are just rafters." And even that supposedly honest moment, I would argue, is in service of the lie, but it's supposed to foreground the artificiality of the fiction. For me, I kind of prefer the opposite. If I'm going to break down the fourth wall, I want fiction to escape and come into the real world. I want a book to be a secret door that opens and lets the stories out into reality.
Postoji termin koji se zove metafikcija, i to su samo priče o pričama, i meta sada ima svoj trenutak. Njen posljednji veliki trenutak je bio 1960. sa piscima kao John Barth i William Gaddis, ali postoji. Stara je kao i pričanje priča. I jedna metafikcijska tehnika je razbijanje četvrtog zida. Zar ne? To je trenutak kada se glumac okrene publici i kaže, "Ja sam glumac, a ovo su samo daske." I taj navodno iskreni trenutak, rekao bih, je u službi laži, ali treba najaviti umjetnost fikcije. Za mene, ja volim obrnuto. Kako bih srušio četvrti zid, želim da fikcija pobjegne i dođe u stvarni svijet. Želim da knjige budu tajna vrata koja se otvaraju i puštaju priče u našu stvarnost.
And so I try to do this in my books. And here's just one example. This is the first book that I ever made. It's called "Billy Twitters and his Blue Whale Problem." And it's about a kid who gets a blue whale as a pet but it's a punishment and it ruins his life. So it's delivered overnight by FedUp. (Laughter) And he has to take it to school with him. He lives in San Francisco — very tough city to own a blue whale in. A lot of hills, real estate is at a premium. This market's crazy, everybody. But underneath the jacket is this case, and that's the cover underneath the book, the jacket, and there's an ad that offers a free 30-day risk-free trial for a blue whale. And you can just send in a self-addressed stamped envelope and we'll send you a whale. And kids do write in.
Tako da to pokušavam činiti u svojim knjigama. I ovdje je samo jedan primjer. Ovo je prva knjiga koju sam napravio. Zove se "Billy Twitters i njegovi problemi s plavetnim kitom." Radi se o dječaku koji dobije plavetnog kita za ljubimca ali to je kazna i uništava mu život. Dostavljen je preko noći putem FedUp-a. (Smijeh) I mora ga voditi u školu. Živi u San Franciscu — gadan grad za imati plavetnog kita. Puno brda, skupe nekretnine. Ovo tržište je ludo. Ali ispod korica je ovo spremište, i to su korice ispod knjige, i tu je oglas koji nudi probni rok od 30 dana za plavetnog kita. I možete samo poslati adresiranu omotnicu i poslat ćemo vam kita. I djeca pišu.
So here's a letter. It says, "Dear people, I bet you 10 bucks you won't send me a blue whale. Eliot Gannon (age 6)." (Laughter) (Applause)
Ovdje je pismo. Kaže: "Dragi ljudi, kladim se u 10 dolara da mi nećete poslati plavetnog kita. Eliot Gannon (6 godina)." (Smijeh) (Pljesak)
So what Eliot and the other kids who send these in get back is a letter in very small print from a Norwegian law firm — (Laughter) — that says that due to a change in customs laws, their whale has been held up in Sognefjord, which is a very lovely fjord, and then it just kind of talks about Sognefjord and Norwegian food for a little while. It digresses. (Laughter) But it finishes off by saying that your whale would love to hear from you. He's got a phone number, and you can call and leave him a message. And when you call and leave him a message, you just, on the outgoing message, it's just whale sounds and then a beep, which actually sounds a lot like a whale sound. And they get a picture of their whale too. So this is Randolph, and Randolph belongs to a kid named Nico who was one of the first kids to ever call in, and I'll play you some of Nico's message. This is the first message I ever got from Nico.
To što Eliot i druga djeca koja šalju ta pisma dobiju je pismo sitnih slova od pravne tvrtke iz Norveške — (Smijeh) — koje kaže da zbog promjene u carinskim zakonima, njihov kit zaglavio je u Sogenfjordu, koji je zaista lijep fjord, i onda priča o Sogenfjordu i norveškoj hrani neko vrijeme. Odvlači im pažnju. (Smijeh) Ali završava govoreći da bi vas vaš kit volio čuti. Ima broj telefona, i možete ga nazvati i ostaviti mu poruku. I kada ga nazovete i ostavite mu poruku, samo, to je odlazna poruka, to su zvuci kita i onda beep, koji zapravo zvuči kao zvuk kita. I dobiju fotografiju svog kita. Ovo je Randolph, i Randolph pripada dječaku imena Nico koji je jedan od prvih koji je nazvao, i pustit ću vam neke njegove poruke. Ovo je prva poruka koju sam dobio od Nicoa.
(Audio) Nico: Hello, this is Nico. I am your owner, Randolph. Hello. So this is the first time I can ever talk to you, and I might talk to you soon another day. Bye.
(Audio) Nico: Zdravo, ovdje Nico. Ja sam tvoj vlasnik Randolphe. Zdravo. Ovo je prvi put da mogu pričati s tobom, i možda ću jednog dana ponovno. Zdravo.
Mac Barnett: So Nico called back, like, an hour later. (Laughter) And here's another one of Nico's messages.
Mac Barnett: Tako je Nico nazvao ponovno, za sat vremena. (Smijeh) I ovdje je još jedna Nicoova poruka.
(Audio) Nico: Hello, Randolph, this is Nico. I haven't talked to you for a long time, but I talked to you on Saturday or Sunday, yeah, Saturday or Sunday, so now I'm calling you again to say hello and I wonder what you're doing right now, and I'm going to probably call you again tomorrow or today, so I'll talk to you later. Bye.
(Audio) Nico: Zdravo Randolphe, Nico ovdje. Nismo dugo pričali, ali pričao sam s tobom u subotu ili nedjelju, da, subotu i nedjelju, tako da te ponovno zovem da bih te pozdravio i zanima me što sada radiš, i vjerojatno ću te zvati ponovno sutra ili danas, tako da se čujemo kasnije. Zdravo.
MB: So he did, he called back that day again. He's left over 25 messages for Randolph over four years. You find out all about him and the grandma that he loves and the grandma that he likes a little bit less — (Laughter) — and the crossword puzzles that he does, and this is — I'll play you one more message from Nico. This is the Christmas message from Nico.
MB: I tako je nazvao ponovno taj dan. Ostavio je 25 poruka za Randolpha u ove četiri godine. Saznate sve o njemu i baki koju voli i baki koju voli nešto manje — (Smijeh) — i križaljke koje rješava, i ovo je — pustit ću vam još jednu poruku od Nicoa. Ovo je Božićna poruka od Nicoa.
[Beep] (Audio) Nico: Hello, Randolph, sorry I haven't talked to you in a long time. It's just that I've been so busy because school started, as you might not know, probably, since you're a whale, you don't know, and I'm calling you to just say, to wish you a merry Christmas. So have a nice Christmas, and bye-bye, Randolph. Goodbye. MB: I actually got Nico, I hadn't heard from in 18 months, and he just left a message two days ago. His voice is completely different, but he put his babysitter on the phone, and she was very nice to Randolph as well.
[Beep] (Audio) Nico: Zdravo, Randolphe, žao mi je što nismo dugo pričali. Ali bio sam zauzet jer je škola počela, kao što možda znaš, vjerojatno, ne znaš zato što si kit, i zovem te samo kako bih ti rekao, kako bih ti zaželio sretan Božić. Imaj lijep Božić, i bok, Randolphe. Zbogom. MB: Zapravo dobio sam Nicoa, nismo se čuli 18 mjeseci, i ostavio je poruku prije dva dana. Njegov glas je skroz drugačiji, ali dao je telefon dadilji, i ona je isto bila vrlo ljubazna prema Randolphu.
But Nico's the best reader I could hope for. I would want anyone I was writing for to be in that place emotionally with the things that I create. I feel lucky. Kids like Nico are the best readers, and they deserve the best stories we can give them.
Ali Nico je najbolji čitatelj kojem se mogu nadati. Htio bih da svatko za koga pišem bude na tom emocionalnom mjestu sa stvarima koje stvaram. Sretan sam. Djeca poput Nicoa su najbolji čitatelji, i ona zaslužuju najbolje priče koje im možemo dati.
Thank you very much.
Hvala vam puno.
(Applause)
(Pljesak)