Your pets are probably telling stories, too. My goddaughter's mom was a manager at Borders Books, and she often asked me to write goofy little poems for their staff meetings. One month they were actually written by our two cats and just transcribed by me.

Your mention of the power of the written word made a connection with me. My dad introduced me to the written word before I was four years old. Its power is overwhelming, and my parents were not chatty people (they read a lot, too, and have written fiction and poetry at various times). So although I do love to talk and I've been an actor for kind of a long time, I didn't think of the true things I say having an effect on people the way art does until probably just the past few years.