Fictional characters exert a great deal of influence over our choices in love by representing inaccessible ideals to which we try to make others conform, usually without success. But more subtly, too, the books we love offer a sketch of a whole universe that we secretly inhabit, and in which we desire the other person to assume a role. Pierre Bayard
About This Quote

When we read fiction, we are able to believe that things are possible that are not possible in the real world. We see characters act in ways that we would like to be able to do. But our beliefs about what is possible and what is not will likely be different than the things the character believes to be possible or impossible. This is because our beliefs about love are based on our own experiences and perceptions of love, not what other people think love is like.

Source: How To Talk About Books You Havent Read

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More Quotes By Pierre Bayard
  1. The books we love offer a sketch of a whole universe that we secretly inhabit, and in which we desire the other person to assume a role. One of the conditions of happy romantic compatibility is, if not to have read the same books, to...
  2. Criticism demands infinitely more culture than artistic creation.
  3. The title of the work, its place in the collective library, the nature of the person who tells us about it, the atmosphere established in the written or spoken exhange, among many other instances, offer alternatives to the book itself that allow us to talk...
  4. Fictional characters exert a great deal of influence over our choices in love by representing inaccessible ideals to which we try to make others conform, usually without success. But more subtly, too, the books we love offer a sketch of a whole universe that we...
  5. Our relation to books is a shadowy space haunted by the ghosts of memory, and the real value of books lies in their ability to conjure these specters.
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