英文短篇故事（紐約）71 Plenty to Say to No One

In his final years, he rarely talked to anyone. As a boy, he had talked to everyone. He was curious about everything. He asked everyone questions about everything. As he got older, he began to notice something. People didn't answer his questions as often as they used to. Sometimes people didn't answer his questions at all. Many times they answered his question with their own questions: Who knows? Who cares? Are you writing a book? So he gradually stopped asking questions of people. Then he gradually stopped talking to people. After he died, his brother collected his belongings, including his computer. One of his computer files was his journal. It was over 4,500 pages long. The first sentences were: Why bother talking? People are just too busy to listen. I write because my computer accepts my every word. It never ignores me. It never patronizes me. It never interrupts me.