Words to me were magic. You could say a word and it could conjure up all kinds of images or feelings or a chilly sensation or whatever. It was amazing to me that words had this power.

Tan is describing an early, almost visceral discovery of language’s evocative force: words do not merely label reality but can summon sensory experience, emotion, and memory as if by spell. The passage frames reading and writing as a kind of enchantment—an art that works through suggestion and association rather than physical causation. It also hints at why storytelling matters in Tan’s work: language becomes a bridge between inner life and shared understanding, capable of transmitting feeling across time, culture, and personal history. The quote celebrates the imaginative and affective power of diction itself—how a single word can change what we see and how we feel.