Editor’s note: This week, Errol Morris was awarded the annual Hitchens Prize. Named in honor of the late Christopher Hitchens and given by the Dennis & Victoria Ross Foundation, the prize is awarded annually “to an author or journalist whose work reflects a commitment to free expression and inquiry, a range and depth of intellect, and a willingness to pursue the truth without regard to personal or professional consequence.” Here are Morris’s remarks upon receiving the award.
Most people have a candidate for the worst day of their life. Here’s mine: the day I learned to read. No one tells you that you will be trapped. There will be no provision to learn to unread. People will expect things of you. And, worse, you’ll start to expect things of yourself. Reading is like Ariadne’s thread: it gives the presumption of a way out of a labyrinth. Of course, it’s nothing of the sort. Reading may lead nowhere. Reading might just lead to more reading. Not necessarily anything good. Or bad. No resolution. No escape.
