I say this with feeling because I'm aware that there are some who believe that the written word is under threat from snazzier, jazzier, visually-orientated entertainment media such as computers, TV, videos, CD ROMS and other technological wonders that are on the way. But to consign the written word to such a destiny would be like using a Rolls Royce just to deliver groceries. The truth is that the written word has nothing to fear from the technological revolution. There will be no post-literate society because the written word possesses something so precious and so unquenchable that nothing will ever supplant it as a medium of artistic expression. And that something is its hotline to the imagination.
Words are the music of the imagination.
They're the touchstone on which the imagination ignites itself. Words don't simply stimulate the imagination - they require it. There is an investment needed on the part of the reader and it is through this that reader and writer link hands and jointly become the magus that pulls the strings of the story. Words create an intimacy and an alchemy that no computer game will ever match. A thousand words, beautifully written, will create thousands of pictures in the mind, pictures so powerful and so personalised by the imagination that they can stay with the reader for life.