Hi everybody. So my name is Mac. My job is that I lie to children, but they're honest lies.
大家好。我是麥克。 我的工作是「哄」小孩, 但那都是善意的謊言。
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."
我是童書作家, 巴勃羅‧畢卡索曾說過: 「我們都知道藝術是虛虛實實的。 藝術是讓我們感悟真實的謊言 或至少是讓我們領悟真實的事實。 藝術家必須瞭解這種方式 讓人們明白其謊言的真意。」
I first heard this when I was a kid, and I loved it, but I had no idea what it meant. (Laughter)
第一次聽說這句話時還很小, 覺得超愛這句話, 儘管我一點都不了解其藴意。 (笑聲)
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)
所以,我想,大家肯定猜到了, 今天在這裡 要與諸位分享的話題, 也就是真實與謊言,虛幻與現實。 那麼,我該從何入手 來解析這句盤根錯節的句子呢? 我準備了簡報, 和大家一起做個文氏圖。 [真實、謊言。] (笑聲) 瞧這裡,變。 這裡有真實與謊言 和一小片空間, 邊緣,靠中間的位置。 這片非常有限的空間,就是藝術。 好了。這就是文氏圖。 (笑聲)(掌聲)
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.
但其實也不太有用喔。 讓我真正明白這句話 而且理解什麼是藝術, 至少理解虛幻藝術的事情, 是和孩子們互動的時候。 我以前當過夏令營的輔導大哥哥。 在大學暑期會做一些這樣的工作, 而且非常熱愛。 記得有一次運動主題的夏令營 孩子們的年齡在 4-6 歲之間。 當時我是 4 歲孩子的領隊, 很不錯,因為 4 歲的小孩還不會運動, 正好我也不擅長。 (笑聲) 我就是玩玩 4 歲小孩的活動, 他們的活動大不了就是 繞著一些交通錐跑跑, 要是覺得熱了, 就去大樹下面乘乘涼, 而我老早就坐那等他們了。 (笑聲) 我會編一些故事講給他們聽, 給他們講一些我生活的故事。 比如,我會告訴他們,週末時 我會回家,然後去做英國女王的特工。 不一會兒 其它組的孩子們, 也會不約而來,他們會問: 「你就是麥克‧巴內特吧? 你就是那個替英國女王做特工的。」 我早就盼望有陌生人 向我問這樣的問題了。 想像中,應該是些 身材苗條的俄羅斯姑娘, 但 4 歲小孩也行啦, 在加州柏克萊這地方就將就一點。
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.
我意識到我所講的故事 從我所熟悉的角度來看是真實的 而且是令人興奮的。 我想這整件事最經典的, 我一輩子忘不了, 有位名叫萊莉的小女孩, 個子很小, 她每天總喜歡將午餐取出來 然後把水果扔掉。 她每次都把水果, 她媽媽每天給她備一個甜瓜, 她都把瓜扔到常春藤裡, 然後開始吃水果糖 和布丁果凍,我告訴她: 「萊莉,這樣做不對啊,你得吃水果。」 她好奇地問道:「為什麼?」 我回答:「你把水果扔進長春藤裡, 不久,就會到處長滿甜瓜。」 這也正是我後來寫童書 而不去做兒童營養學家的原因。 萊莉回答道:「這不可能。 哪有這樣的事情。」 夏令營的最後一天, 我起得很早,在商店 買了個大哈密瓜 悄悄放在常春藤中。 到了午餐時間,我說: 「萊莉,去那邊瞧瞧, 看你做了什麼。」 然後...(笑聲) 她蹣跚地穿過常春藤, 眼睛瞪得大大的, 指著那個比她腦袋還大的哈密瓜, 這時,所有的小孩都蜂擁過去, 擁簇在萊莉周圍, 其中一位小孩說:「咦, 為什麼甜瓜上會有張標籤貼紙呢?」 (笑聲) 這時我說:「不是告訴你們 不要往常春藤裡扔貼紙嗎? 應將它們扔進垃圾筒。 到處亂扔有害環境。」 那天,萊莉將她的甜瓜抱了一整天, 她覺得非常自豪。
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.
萊莉知道她並沒有 在 7 天內種出甜瓜, 但同時她知道自己確實又做到了, 這就是奇怪的地方, 不是只有孩子們可以到達, 任何事情都可以。 藝術能夠讓我們到達此處。 那就是中間的那個位置, 可以稱之為藝術或小說。 我將其稱之為奇蹟。 英國湖畔詩人柯勒律治 將其稱之為「自願終止懷疑」 或詩意的信仰, 在傾聽故事的瞬間, 無論故事多麼奇怪, 它們都與真實的意境有神似之處, 能夠讓你相信故事中發生的事情。 不僅僅孩子們能夠做到。 成人也可以, 我們在閱讀時就能做到。 這正是為何在兩天內 人們飛往都柏林 參加布魯姆日徒步導覽 並感受《尤利西斯》中 所發生的每個故事。 儘管這些故事都未曾發生過。 或者就像人們去倫敦, 他們會到訪貝克街 要去看看福爾摩斯的寓所一樣, 儘管 221B 僅僅是 漆塗在建築物上的編號, 並非是該建築物的實際地址。 我們知道這些人物都是虛擬的, 但我們卻能真實感受到 這些人物的存在, 我們能夠做到這一點。 我們知道這些人物並非真實存在, 但我們能感受到他們的存在。
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.
兒童比成年人更容易 感受到虛擬人物的存在, 這正是我喜歡寫童書的原因。 我認為兒童是 嚴肅文學小說的忠實讀者。 孩童時, 我沉迷於神秘之門這類小說, 比如《納尼亞傳奇》, 打開一扇衣櫥,就能進入魔幻世界。 當時我確信真的存在神秘之門, 我四處尋找並企圖穿越神秘之門。 我想要穿越到科幻世界, 並在那裡生活, 所以我總是去開別人的衣櫥門。 (笑聲) 我恰巧打開了我母親男朋友的衣櫥, 衣櫥裡並沒有發現神秘的魔幻世界, 卻發現了些怪異的東西, 我想我母親應該要知道。 (笑聲) 我高興地告訴她所有這些事。
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.
大學畢業後,我的第一份工作 是在一扇神秘之門後面工作。 這個地方叫做「瓦倫西亞 826 號」。 位於瓦倫西亞大街 826 號, 就在舊金山米遜區。 我在那裡工作時, 有一家總部設在此處 名為麥斯威尼的出版公司, 一個非盈利性的寫作中心, 名為瓦倫西亞 826 號, 但寫作中心的前面 卻有一家奇怪的商店。 這地方是零售店區, 在舊金山,這類零售店大同小異, 因此該店創始人兼作家大維‧艾格斯 賦予了這家店特色,他說, 「好吧,我正好把這家店 改建成一家海盜用品店。」 他真的改建成了海盜用品店。(笑聲) 商店很漂亮,全實木。 有些抽屜,你可以打開, 並在抽屜裡找到柑橘, 這樣你就不會得壞血病。 店裡出售各種顏色的眼罩, 因為春天的時候,海盜都會想瘋一下。 誰知道。黑色很無趣。要柔和色系的。 或者出售各種顏色的眼睛, 都是玻璃而已啦, 或如果你想入戲一點也可以。 奇怪的是, 居然有人光顧這家商店,並購買物品, 到後來,盈餘居然可以為 商店後面的寫作中心支付租金。 但對我來說,更重要的是 所從事工作的性質, 孩子們能夠從這裡獲得寫作指導, 當你寫作前得先經過 這怪異中介的虛構空間時, 將對你的作品產生影響。 這是一扇能夠穿越的神秘之門。 後來我到洛杉磯成立 826 號分店,
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.
我需要在那裡創立一家門店。 所以就有了 「回聲公園時光旅行商店」。 我們的座右銘是: 「不管什麼時代我們都去過了。」 (笑聲) 這家店位於洛杉磯日落大道。 我們和藹可親的店員已經在等您了。 店員們來自各個時代, 比如,來自 1980 年代的店員, 圖中最左側的那位, 這位員工所處時代距離現在最近。 我們的每月最佳員工 有成吉思汗、查爾斯‧狄更斯等。 一些偉人出現在我們的店員中。 這是我們的藥品區域。 我們有些專利藥品, 用於存儲你器官的卡諾卜罈罐, 還有共產主義肥皂,上面寫: 「今年你只配發到這一塊肥皂。」 (笑聲) 開張之夜, 我們的冰沙機出現故障, 我們當時不知所措。 我們的建築師渾身沾滿 冰沙的紅糖水。 看起來就像剛殺了人, 對這位特別的建築師來說, 這不是不可能, 當時我們真不知道如何是好。 這都快成為我們店的頭等大事了。 於是我們在機器上貼上標示: 「功能紊亂,請昨天再光顧。」 (笑聲) 這笑話後來比冰沙機本身還好笑, 所以我們就把標示一直貼著。 我們出售猛獁象厚片。 每罐 7 磅重。 還有野人驅蟲劑, 瓶內裝滿了沙拉和百花香, 野人最討厭這類東西。 還賣死掉的語言。 (笑聲) 店內還售有水蛭, 大自然的微小醫生。 還有海盜香氛,有很多種刺鼻味道: 腳趾甲、汗水、 腐爛的蔬菜,以及柴堆灰。 因為我們認為 你應該在戰場上去找斧牌香體噴霧, 而不是在你的腋下去找。 (笑聲) 我們還出售機器人情感晶片, 有了晶片,機器人就能 感受到愛或恐懼。 店內最暢銷產品是「幸災樂禍」, 這是我們沒有想到的。 (笑聲) 我們從未想過會如此暢銷。 但這家店後面的寫作中心 是非盈利性質的, 孩子們進入門上貼有 「非員工勿進」標示的寫作中心, 然後就在這裡 做功課、編故事、製作電影, 照片上的是新書發佈會, 孩子們會在這裡朗讀。 這裡每季度都要發行 孩子們利用每天放學後的時間 在這裡完成的寫作作品, 我們還舉行發佈會, 孩子們一邊吃著蛋糕, 一邊把作品讀給父母聽, 還用香檳酒杯喝牛奶。 這裡真的是一個很特別的地方, 完全是因為前面的那家怪異商店。 笑話不再是笑話。 小說裡看不出拼接的痕跡, 我超愛這點。正是這種小小說 俘獲了現實世界。 我覺得它有點像三維立體書。
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.
有個詞叫「元小說」, 即講述小說的小說, 現在「元」的概念非常熱門。 上次流行的時候可能是 1960 年代, 以小說家約翰‧巴思 和威廉‧加迪斯為代表, 這個技法現在還有人在用。 它的歷史幾乎和講故事一樣久遠。 其中有一個元小說技巧 是打破第 4 堵牆。對吧? 舉個例子,演員面向觀眾, 說道:「我是個演員, 他們只是些椽木。」 即使是這種看似誠實的介紹, 在我看來,也是為了揭露謊言, 使小說人為的虛構性 更加突出。 對我而言,我喜歡反其道而行之。 如果我要拆除第 4 堵牆, 我希望小說逃離 進入現實世界。 我希望書籍能成為一扇秘密之門, 開啟故事王國,再進入現實世界。
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.
寫自己的書時我一直努力這樣做。 舉個簡單的例子。 這是我寫的第一本書。 書名叫《比利推特和他的藍鯨問題》。 故事講述一個小孩, 養了一條藍鯨當寵物, 後果可想而知, 毀了他整個人生。 所以這隻藍鯨以肥死快遞送到。 (笑聲) 他還得帶藍鯨去學校。 他住在舊金山, 這個城市能養條藍鯨很不容易。 那裡山多,房價高。 市場簡直不可理喻,各位。 書的封套下面是這個盒子, 那是書下面的封面,封套, 上面是一則廣告, 30 天免費試養藍鯨, 當然沒有任何危險。 讀者只需寄來一個含郵資信封, 寫上自己的姓名和地址, 我們將給您寄去一條藍鯨。 還真有孩子寫信過來。
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)
這是其中的一封。 上面說道:「敬啟者, 我賭 10 美元, 你們肯定不會給我寄藍鯨。 艾略特‧甘農(6 歲)。」 (笑聲)(掌聲)
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.
艾略特和其他寫信給我們的孩子 收到的是 一封小號字體打印的信, 由挪威一家法律事務所寄出。 (笑聲) 信上說,由於海關法修訂後, 他們的藍鯨滯留在松恩峽灣, 挪威最美麗的峽灣之一。 信中接著聊了一會松恩峽灣 和挪威的美食。律師也離題了。 (笑聲) 信最後說道: 「藍鯨期待收到你的回信。 他有電話號碼, 歡迎你來電留言。」 當孩子們真的來電留言時, 電話這頭的錄音 是鯨的聲音,然後是「嗶」的一聲, 確實很像鯨的聲音。 他們還收到一張藍鯨的照片。 照片裡是倫道夫, 倫道夫屬於一位叫尼科的小朋友, 他也是第一位打進電話的小讀者, 現在我給大家放一些尼科的留言。 這是我收到尼科的第一條留言。
(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.
(錄音)尼科:你好!我是尼科。 我是你的主人,倫道夫。你好啊。 嗯,這是我第一次和你聊天, 呃,改天我再找你聊了。拜。
Mac Barnett: So Nico called back, like, an hour later. (Laughter) And here's another one of Nico's messages.
馬克‧巴內特:然後呢, 大概過了一個小時尼科又打過來。 (笑聲) 這是尼科的另一條留言。
(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.
(錄音)尼科:你好, 倫道夫,我是尼科。 好久沒和你聊天了, 我週六還是週日找你聊過吧, 沒錯,週六或週日, 所以我才又給你打電話了, 你好嗎,我想知道你現在幹嘛呀。 我大概會在明天或者今天 再給你打電話。 到時我再跟你聊咯。拜。
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.
麥克:果然,他當天又打過來了。 他一共給倫道夫錄了25 條留言, 持續四年的時間。 你會非常了解他 和他喜愛的奶奶, 他外婆呢,他比較不喜歡。 (笑聲) 還有,知道他做的填字遊戲。 讓我們聽聽另一則尼科的留言。 這是尼科的聖誕留言。
[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.
[嗶](錄音)尼科:你好,倫道夫, 對不起,我好久沒有和你聊天了。 主要是我一直很忙, 因為開學了, 你可能不明白,也許吧, 畢竟你是鯨魚,自然不知道了。 我打電話給你,是想說, 想祝你聖誕快樂。 聖誕快樂啊, 拜拜,倫道夫。拜拜。 麥克:我實際上發現尼科 已經 18 個月沒有捎來消息。 不過就在兩天前,他留言了。 他的聲音變化很大, 他也讓保姆講電話, 她對倫道夫也很好。
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.
實際上,我覺得尼科是最好的讀者。 我希望我的每位讀者 都能用心感受 我創造的東西。 我覺得很幸運。 像尼科這樣的小朋友是最好的讀者, 他們值得我們給他們創作最好的故事。
Thank you very much.
謝謝各位。
(Applause)
(掌聲)