[W]hen I put Jorge in the library I did not yet know he was the murderer. He acted on his own, so to speak. And it must not be thought that this is an 'idealistic' position, as if I were saying that the characters have an autonomous life and the author, in a kind of trance, makes them behave as they themselves direct him. That kind of nonsense belongs in term papers. The fact is that the characters are obliged to act according to the laws of the world in which they live. In other words, the narrator is the prisoner of his own premises.Umberto Eco
About This Quote
No one truly knows a person until you put him in a library. This is a very common literary quote that has been used for many years. This quote is usually said in relation to a character who had been known by his friends or family to have a good character, but when put in the library they reveal something very different from what was previously known. In this case, Jorge becomes a murderer because he is an animal and not a human being.
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