When I started to learn how to read, I discovered the same kind of power. I could create an environment that I didn’t have, and I could order this environment in the way that I couldn’t in my actual life. Then, when I learned to write, I learned that I could do this not only for myself, but for other people. I could create whole things that were believable, at least to myself, at that point. And in this way, I began to wield an authority and a power that I had not had before. In other words, every child goes through this. Some pick football and some pick the library. I picked the library.

When I started to learn how to read, I discovered the same kind of power. I could create an environment that I didn’t have, and I could order this environment in the way that I couldn’t in my actual life. Then, when I learned to write, I learned that I could do this not only for myself, but for other people. I could create whole things that were believable, at least to myself, at that point. And in this way, I began to wield an authority and a power that I had not had before. In other words, every child goes through this. Some pick football and some pick the library. I picked the library.

– Donald Richie –

The Donald Richie Reader: 50 Years of Writing on Japan

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