“Our relationship with literary characters, at least to those that exercise a certain attraction over us, rests in fact on a denial. We know perfectly well, on a conscious level, that these characters “do not exist,” or in any case… — Pierre Bayard Copy Share Image
“[…] there exists around the written world opened by the work a multitude of other possible worlds, which we can complete by means of… — Pierre Bayard Copy Share Image
“The paradox of reading is that the path toward ourselves passes through books, but that this must remain a passage. It is a traversal… — Pierre Bayard Copy Share Image
“[…] a given text may seem fictional or actual depending on the context in which we encounter it. The same is true for oral… — Pierre Bayard Copy Share Image
“As may be seen, there is only one sensible piece of advice to give to those who find themselves having to talk to an… — Pierre Bayard Copy Share Image
“A great number of elements in the characters’ lives, both psychic and factual, are not communicated to us. […] These characters, I believe, enjoy… — Pierre Bayard Copy Share Image
“(in which, along with Montaigne, we raise the question of whether a book you have read and completely forgotten, and which you have even… — Pierre Bayard Copy Share Image
“Reading is first and foremost non-reading. Even in the case of the most passionate lifelong readers, the act of picking up and opening a… — Pierre Bayard Copy Share Image
“Our relation to books is a shadowy space haunted by the ghosts of memory, and the real value of books lies in their ability… — Pierre Bayard Copy Share Image
“Fictional characters exert a great deal of influence over our choices in love by representing inaccessible ideals to which we try to make others… — Pierre Bayard Copy Share Image
“To speak without shame about books we haven’t read, we would thus do well to free ourselves of the oppressive image of cultural literacy… — Pierre Bayard Copy Share Image
“The title of the work, its place in the collective library, the nature of the person who tells us about it, the atmosphere established… — Pierre Bayard Copy Share Image
![“[…] there exists around the written world opened by the work a multitude of other possible worlds, which we can complete by means of our images and our words. Denying oneself this work of completion in the name of some hypothetical fidelity to the work is bound to fail: we can indeed reject…” quote by Pierre Bayard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/20a/pierre-bayard-29513_fiction_there-exists-around-the-written-world-op_160551.jpg)
![“[…] a given text may seem fictional or actual depending on the context in which we encounter it. The same is true for oral performances. [Thomas] Pavel takes the example of a theatrical scene wherein an actor mimics the gestures of a priest and pretends to bless the audience. There is nothing…” quote by Pierre Bayard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/d9b/pierre-bayard-29513_real-life_a-given-text-may-seem-fictional-or-actua_588223.jpg)
![“A great number of elements in the characters’ lives, both psychic and factual, are not communicated to us. […] These characters, I believe, enjoy a much greater autonomy than we usually think, and are able to take initiatives unknown both to the writer and the reader. When characters have their…” quote by Pierre Bayard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/558/pierre-bayard-29513_books_a-great-number-of-elements-in-the-charac_1030375.jpg)
