Well Said: A dealer in words

I am, by calling, a dealer in words; and words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind. Not only do words infect, ergotise, narcotise, and paralyse, but they enter into and colour the minutest cells of the brain ...

Rudyard Kipling

I've begun listening to a lecture series by Michael Drout, Singers and Tales: Oral Tradition and the Roots of Literature. Between that and the strong impression that The Storytelling Animal (my review here) left upon me, I think we'd have to say Kipling is absolutely correct.