Funny Business: Conversations with Writers of Comedy

by Daniel Handler, edited by Leonard S. Marcus (via First Milk)

The primary advantage of a large vocabulary when you're young is entirely different from the primary advantage of a large vocabulary when you're an adult. When you're an adult it's so you can describe things with precision, and when you're a child it's mostly so that you can insult people without their knowing it or otherwise baffle them. A child with a large vocabulary is a trusted child. The idea is that a bookworm is not the kind of child who would ever get into any trouble. If, however, you are the kind of bookworm that I was, and you're reading Confessions of an Opium Eater, you are probably somewhat likelier to get into trouble than a child who knows fewer words.