--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: Have you ever felt, in the course of…" description: "\"“Have you ever felt, in the course of reading a detective novel, a guilty thrill of relief at having a character murdered before he can step onto the p..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/9ca/jonathan-lethem-1403_adventure_have-you-ever-felt-in-the-course-of-read_2952742.png" --- # Have you ever felt, in the course of reading a detective… ![“Have you ever felt, in the course of reading a detective novel, a guilty thrill of relief at having a character murdered before he can step onto the page and burden you with his actual existence? Detective stories always have too many characters anyway. And characters mentioned early on but never…” quote by Jonathan Lethem](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/9ca/jonathan-lethem-1403_adventure_have-you-ever-felt-in-the-course-of-read_2952742.png) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/9ca/jonathan-lethem-1403_adventure_have-you-ever-felt-in-the-course-of-read_2952742.png) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/9ca/jonathan-lethem-1403_adventure_have-you-ever-felt-in-the-course-of-read_2952742.png) > ““Have you ever felt, in the course of reading a detective novel, a guilty thrill of relief at having a character murdered before he can step onto the page and burden you with his actual existence? Detective stories always have too many characters anyway. And characters mentioned early on but never sighted, just lingering offstage, take on an awful portentous quality. Better to have them gone.”” [Jonathan Lethem](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jonathan-lethem/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Readers may feel relief when a character dies early, avoiding the burden of their continued presence, especially in crowded narratives. **In simple terms:** Early death can simplify a story. Key Takeaway Consider narrative economy when planning characters. Themes literature character narrative economy Mood thoughtful analytical Type literary strategic When to use this quote - novel writing - editing - plot development Key Concepts story structure character elimination Questions to Reflect On - When is it better to keep a character? - How does character death affect tension? A Different Perspective Removing characters may reduce depth. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Adventure](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/adventure/) [Books](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/books/) [Crime](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/crime/) [Detective stories](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/detective-stories/) [Life](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/life/) ## Related quotes > [You have a tendency, Hastings, to prefer the least likely. That, no doubt, is from reading too many detective stories.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/agatha-christie/you-have-a-tendency-hastings-to-prefer-the-least-likely-that-no-doubt/) [Agatha Christie](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/agatha-christie/) > [While I was writing poems, I would often divert myself by reading detective novels, I liked them. 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When the British Empire collapses, historians will find that it had made but two invaluable contributions…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ayn-rand/ah-there-s-nothing-like-tea-in-the-afternoon-when-the-british-empire/) [Ayn Rand](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ayn-rand/) > [My experience of life is that it is not divided up into genres; it’s a horrifying, romantic, tragic, comical, science-fiction cowboy detective novel. You…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alan-moore/my-experience-of-life-is-that-it-is-not-divided-up-into-genres-it-s-a/) [Alan Moore](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alan-moore/) > [With the second book, I didn't have an ideal reader in mind, as it developed quite out of my control, this detective novel of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/viv-albertine/with-the-second-book-i-didn-t-have-an-ideal-reader-in-mind-as-it/) [Viv Albertine](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/viv-albertine/) > [I'm trying to keep it fresh for me. I'm just trying to not bore myself. 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Van Dine](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/s-s-van-dine/) > [Yeah, I'd say there's probably about a couple of hundred people I admire - but that has nothing to do with what a person…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/tom-verlaine/yeah-i-d-say-there-s-probably-about-a-couple-of-hundred-people-i/) [Tom Verlaine](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/tom-verlaine/) > [But the first published thing I did was a detective story, detective novel, and I did that on my own.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/peter-shaffer/but-the-first-published-thing-i-did-was-a-detective-story-detective/) [Peter Shaffer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/peter-shaffer/) > [The detective novel is the art-for-art's-sake of our yawning Philistinism, the classic example of a specialized form of art removed from contact with the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/v-s-pritchett/the-detective-novel-is-the-art-for-art-s-sake-of-our-yawning/) [V. S. Pritchett](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/v-s-pritchett/) > [“After all, the fundamental question of philosophy (like that of psychoanalysis) is the same as the question of the detective novel: who is guilty?”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/umberto-eco/after-all-the-fundamental-question-of-philosophy-like-that-of/) [Umberto Eco](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/umberto-eco/) > [You find when you're writing a detective story that you're actually not trying to solve anything. You're trying to stop the reader from solving…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-bollen/you-find-when-you-re-writing-a-detective-story-that-you-re-actually/) [Christopher Bollen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-bollen/) ## More by Jonathan Lethem > [It was often this way, life consisted of a series of false beginnings, bluff declarations of arrival to destinations not even glimpsed.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jonathan-lethem/it-was-often-this-way-life-consisted-of-a-series-of-false-beginnings/) [Jonathan Lethem](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jonathan-lethem/) > [I've been an advocate against the view of the writer as a partitioned genius hanging in conceptual space, or up on a mountain, a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jonathan-lethem/i-ve-been-an-advocate-against-the-view-of-the-writer-as-a-partitioned/) [Jonathan Lethem](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jonathan-lethem/) > [“I suppose there was never a reason for tearing down a cabin or scrapping a stopped automobile, if you had all those acres.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jonathan-lethem/i-suppose-there-was-never-a-reason-for-tearing-down-a-cabin-or/) [Jonathan Lethem](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jonathan-lethem/) > [Life is fundamentally up for grabs](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jonathan-lethem/life-is-fundamentally-up-for-grabs/) [Jonathan Lethem](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jonathan-lethem/) > [My heart, to put it more simply, got nostalgic for the present. 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If Mingus Rude could be kept in this place, kept somehow in Dylan's pocket, in his stinging, smudgy hands, then summer wouldn't give…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jonathan-lethem/if-if-mingus-rude-could-be-kept-in-this-place-kept-somehow-in-dylan-s/) [Jonathan Lethem](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jonathan-lethem/) > [I had always wanted to be a writer who confused genre boundaries and who was read in multiple contexts.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jonathan-lethem/i-had-always-wanted-to-be-a-writer-who-confused-genre-boundaries-and/) [Jonathan Lethem](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jonathan-lethem/) > [“Memory is a rehearsal for a show that never goes on.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jonathan-lethem/memory-is-a-rehearsal-for-a-show-that-never-goes-on/) [Jonathan Lethem](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jonathan-lethem/) > [“There is nothing Tourettic about the New York City subways.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jonathan-lethem/there-is-nothing-tourettic-about-the-new-york-city-subways/) [Jonathan Lethem](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jonathan-lethem/) > [“Mingus Rude, Arthur Lomb, Gabriel Stern and Tim Vandertooth, even Aaron K. Doily: Dylan never met anyone who wasn't about to change immediately into…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jonathan-lethem/mingus-rude-arthur-lomb-gabriel-stern-and-tim-vandertooth-even-aaron/) [Jonathan Lethem](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jonathan-lethem/) > [I try to write every day. I don't beat myself up about word counts, or how many hours are ticking by on the clock…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jonathan-lethem/i-try-to-write-every-day-i-don-t-beat-myself-up-about-word-counts-or/) [Jonathan Lethem](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jonathan-lethem/) > [“Enough of this. Does every conversation with you have to be the director's cut? Get out of the car.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jonathan-lethem/enough-of-this-does-every-conversation-with-you-have-to-be-the/) [Jonathan Lethem](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jonathan-lethem/) > [“The stumbling block will turn out to be the traditional one for students of consciousness: the flashlight is incapable of shining on itself, so…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jonathan-lethem/the-stumbling-block-will-turn-out-to-be-the-traditional-one-for/) [Jonathan Lethem](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jonathan-lethem/) > [“May one plead, Your Honor, postmodernism as an involuntary condition?”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jonathan-lethem/may-one-plead-your-honor-postmodernism-as-an-involuntary-condition/) [Jonathan Lethem](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jonathan-lethem/) [Explore all 241 Jonathan Lethem quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jonathan-lethem/) ## More Adventure quotes > [I'm trying to write a film with my friend. 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I've also done some gravity tests…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/richard-branson/i-ve-used-the-phoenix-centrifuge-to-replicate-what-the-body-s-going/) [Richard Branson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/richard-branson/) > [I have lifted my plane . . . for perhaps a thousand flights and I have never felt her wheels glide from the Earth…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/beryl-markham/i-have-lifted-my-plane-for-perhaps-a-thousand-flights-and-i-have/) [Beryl Markham](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/beryl-markham/) > [I am attracted to looking at the different things language can mean even in one sometimes quite ordinary utterance. Writing is partly about listening…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rae-armantrout/i-am-attracted-to-looking-at-the-different-things-language-can-mean/) [Rae Armantrout](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rae-armantrout/) > [What a thrill. You know you've entered new territory when you realise that your outfit cost more than your film.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jessica-yu/what-a-thrill-you-know-you-ve-entered-new-territory-when-you-realise/) Jessica Yu > [“So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned by a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alexander-supertramp-chris-mccandless/so-many-people-live-within-unhappy-circumstances-and-yet-will-not/) Alexander Supertramp Chris McCandless > [A common fallacy in much of the adverse criticism to which science is subjected today is that it claims certainty, infallibility and complete emotional…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/cyril-norman-hinshelwood/a-common-fallacy-in-much-of-the-adverse-criticism-to-which-science-is/) [Cyril Norman Hinshelwood](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/cyril-norman-hinshelwood/) > [“Exactly. I think the original tantric Buddhists took notice of was some very wise old people who never studied in their youth, but took…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joe-niemczura/exactly-i-think-the-original-tantric-buddhists-took-notice-of-was/) [Joe Niemczura](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joe-niemczura/) > [As an adventurer...I try to protect against the downside. I make sure I have covered as many eventualities as I can. 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