--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: I wasn't able to think about them…" description: "\"“I wasn't able to think about them directly or summon them up in any conscious way, but as I put together their puzzles and played with their Lego piec..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/913/paul-auster-351_quote_i-wasn-t-able-to-think-about-them-direct_2254102.jpg" --- # I wasn't able to think about them directly or summon them… ![“I wasn't able to think about them directly or summon them up in any conscious way, but as I put together their puzzles and played with their Lego pieces, building evermore complex and baroque structures, I felt that I was temporarily inhabiting them again--carrying on their little phantom lives…” quote by Paul Auster](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/913/paul-auster-351_quote_i-wasn-t-able-to-think-about-them-direct_2254102.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/913/paul-auster-351_quote_i-wasn-t-able-to-think-about-them-direct_2254102.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/913/paul-auster-351_quote_i-wasn-t-able-to-think-about-them-direct_2254102.jpg) > ““I wasn't able to think about them directly or summon them up in any conscious way, but as I put together their puzzles and played with their Lego pieces, building evermore complex and baroque structures, I felt that I was temporarily inhabiting them again--carrying on their little phantom lives for them by repeating the gestures they had made when they still had bodies.”” [Paul Auster](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paul-auster/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. The author describes immersing himself in others' creative processes by reconstructing their work, feeling a temporary rebirth of their artistic spirit. **In simple terms:** He feels alive by rebuilding others' ideas. Key Takeaway Engage deeply with others' work to understand them. Themes creativity empathy artistic process Mood reflective inspirational Type literary philosophical When to use this quote - writing workshops - collaborative projects - learning new skills - art therapy Key Concepts reconstruction identity imagination Questions to Reflect On - How does reconstruction shape your own voice? - What boundaries exist between homage and imitation? A Different Perspective Recreating others' work may limit original expression. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet ## Related quotes > [I wasn't terribly sociable. I had two or three friends at school. I drew things, played with Lego. My parents left me free to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/derren-brown/i-wasn-t-terribly-sociable-i-had-two-or-three-friends-at-school-i/) [Derren Brown](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/derren-brown/) > [“It was about more fully inhabiting the life I have, not creating a new one.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/patti-digh/it-was-about-more-fully-inhabiting-the-life-i-have-not-creating-a-new/) [Patti Digh](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/patti-digh/) > [Strange—we are always inhabiting more than one realm of existence—but they all fit in if the art is right.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lorine-niedecker/strange-we-are-always-inhabiting-more-than-one-realm-of-existence-but/) [Lorine Niedecker](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lorine-niedecker/) > [Being an actor, imitating to the point of inhabiting the lives of others, may simply be a way of continuing to do what I…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/viggo-mortensen/being-an-actor-imitating-to-the-point-of-inhabiting-the-lives-of/) [Viggo Mortensen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/viggo-mortensen/) > [It helps to be more interested in other people than you are in yourself. Inhabiting other characters is what I do.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/shaun-evans/it-helps-to-be-more-interested-in-other-people-than-you-are-in/) [Shaun Evans](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/shaun-evans/) > [“For the rest of us—members of that peculiar, prosaic species classified by Pierre Bourdieu as homo academicus9—dwelling poetically could mean gauging the dimensions of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/helen-sword/for-the-rest-of-us-members-of-that-peculiar-prosaic-species/) [Helen Sword](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/helen-sword/) > [Nobody knows the world of emotion I'm inhabiting right now.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mackenzie-davis/nobody-knows-the-world-of-emotion-i-m-inhabiting-right-now/) [Mackenzie Davis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mackenzie-davis/) > [For me, I try to see difficulties as a way of expanding and growing as a person inhabiting this planet.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jane-badler/for-me-i-try-to-see-difficulties-as-a-way-of-expanding-and-growing-as/) [Jane Badler](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jane-badler/) > [I've been doing this since I was 10 years old, inhabiting different people and playing different roles.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/don-cheadle/i-ve-been-doing-this-since-i-was-10-years-old-inhabiting-different-2/) [Don Cheadle](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/don-cheadle/) > [For me, a place is defined by the kind of people inhabiting it.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/catherine-tresa/for-me-a-place-is-defined-by-the-kind-of-people-inhabiting-it/) [Catherine Tresa](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/catherine-tresa/) > [A ghost is someone who hasn't made it - in other words, who died, and they don't know they're dead. So they keep walking…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sylvia-browne/a-ghost-is-someone-who-hasn-t-made-it-in-other-words-who-died-and/) [Sylvia Browne](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sylvia-browne/) > [With all fashion, what we do is play at being somebody else. We play at inhabiting another kind of world.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/brian-eno/with-all-fashion-what-we-do-is-play-at-being-somebody-else-we-play-at/) [Brian Eno](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/brian-eno/) > [Friendship is two souls inhabiting one body.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/aristotle/friendship-is-two-souls-inhabiting-one-body/) [Aristotle](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/aristotle/) > [“Not so long ago, I spent a period in New York City, that teeming island of gneiss and concrete and glass, inhabiting loneliness on…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/olivia-laing/not-so-long-ago-i-spent-a-period-in-new-york-city-that-teeming-island/) [Olivia Laing](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/olivia-laing/) > [I'm inhabiting a life I'm not supposed to be in... and at certain times in my life, I have felt a wrongness. And not…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sam-shepard/i-m-inhabiting-a-life-i-m-not-supposed-to-be-in-and-at-certain-times/) [Sam Shepard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sam-shepard/) ## More by Paul Auster > [“On his best walks, he was able to feel that he was nowhere. And this, finally, was all he ever asked of things: to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-auster/on-his-best-walks-he-was-able-to-feel-that-he-was-nowhere-and-this/) [Paul Auster](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paul-auster/) > [“No es que escribir me produzca un gran placer, pero es mucho peor si no lo hago.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-auster/no-es-que-escribir-me-produzca-un-gran-placer-pero-es-mucho-peor-si/) [Paul Auster](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paul-auster/) > [You see, the interesting thing about books, as opposed, say, to films, is that it's always just one person encountering the book, it's not…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-auster/you-see-the-interesting-thing-about-books-as-opposed-say-to-films-is/) [Paul Auster](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paul-auster/) > [I'm not a man deeply interested in technology. It eludes me.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-auster/i-m-not-a-man-deeply-interested-in-technology-it-eludes-me/) [Paul Auster](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paul-auster/) > [The joke is the purest, most essential form of storytelling. Every word has to count.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-auster/the-joke-is-the-purest-most-essential-form-of-storytelling-every-word/) [Paul Auster](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paul-auster/) > [“What people saw when he appeared before them, then, was not really him, but a person he had invented, an artificial creature he could…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-auster/what-people-saw-when-he-appeared-before-them-then-was-not-really-him/) [Paul Auster](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paul-auster/) > [I had made an empirical discovery and it carried all the weight of a mathematical proof.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-auster/i-had-made-an-empirical-discovery-and-it-carried-all-the-weight-of-a/) [Paul Auster](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paul-auster/) > [As long as there's one person to believe it, there's no story that can't be true.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-auster/as-long-as-there-s-one-person-to-believe-it-there-s-no-story-that-can/) [Paul Auster](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paul-auster/) > [Writing has always had a tactile quality for me. It's a physical experience.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-auster/writing-has-always-had-a-tactile-quality-for-me-it-s-a-physical/) [Paul Auster](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paul-auster/) > [People look at the same passage, and one person will say this is the best thing he's ever read, and another person will say…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-auster/people-look-at-the-same-passage-and-one-person-will-say-this-is-the/) [Paul Auster](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paul-auster/) > [I was very moved to see that the name of the boat was Hamlet - an imaginary character becomes so important to people, we…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-auster/i-was-very-moved-to-see-that-the-name-of-the-boat-was-hamlet-an/) [Paul Auster](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paul-auster/) > [Our lifelong certainties about the world can be demolished in a single second.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-auster/our-lifelong-certainties-about-the-world-can-be-demolished-in-a/) [Paul Auster](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paul-auster/) > [The ideal reader's the same, and I suppose this person has never had a face or a gender or an age. It's just some…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-auster/the-ideal-reader-s-the-same-and-i-suppose-this-person-has-never-had-a/) [Paul Auster](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paul-auster/) > [“Most lives vanish. A person dies, and little by little all traces of that life disappear. An inventor survives in his inventions, an architect…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-auster/most-lives-vanish-a-person-dies-and-little-by-little-all-traces-of/) [Paul Auster](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paul-auster/) > [“and cut down many trees. When the Humans”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-auster/and-cut-down-many-trees-when-the-humans/) [Paul Auster](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paul-auster/) [Explore all 582 Paul Auster quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paul-auster/) ## More Inhabiting quotes > [“It was about more fully inhabiting the life I have, not creating a new one.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/patti-digh/it-was-about-more-fully-inhabiting-the-life-i-have-not-creating-a-new/) [Patti Digh](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/patti-digh/) > [“Not so long ago, I spent a period in New York City, that teeming island of gneiss and concrete and glass, inhabiting loneliness on…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/olivia-laing/not-so-long-ago-i-spent-a-period-in-new-york-city-that-teeming-island/) [Olivia Laing](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/olivia-laing/) > [Friendship is two souls inhabiting one body.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/aristotle/friendship-is-two-souls-inhabiting-one-body/) [Aristotle](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/aristotle/) > [With all fashion, what we do is play at being somebody else. We play at inhabiting another kind of world.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/brian-eno/with-all-fashion-what-we-do-is-play-at-being-somebody-else-we-play-at/) [Brian Eno](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/brian-eno/) > [A ghost is someone who hasn't made it - in other words, who died, and they don't know they're dead. So they keep walking…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sylvia-browne/a-ghost-is-someone-who-hasn-t-made-it-in-other-words-who-died-and/) [Sylvia Browne](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sylvia-browne/) > [For me, a place is defined by the kind of people inhabiting it.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/catherine-tresa/for-me-a-place-is-defined-by-the-kind-of-people-inhabiting-it/) [Catherine Tresa](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/catherine-tresa/) > [I've been doing this since I was 10 years old, inhabiting different people and playing different roles.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/don-cheadle/i-ve-been-doing-this-since-i-was-10-years-old-inhabiting-different-2/) [Don Cheadle](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/don-cheadle/) > [For me, I try to see difficulties as a way of expanding and growing as a person inhabiting this planet.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jane-badler/for-me-i-try-to-see-difficulties-as-a-way-of-expanding-and-growing-as/) [Jane Badler](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jane-badler/) > [Nobody knows the world of emotion I'm inhabiting right now.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mackenzie-davis/nobody-knows-the-world-of-emotion-i-m-inhabiting-right-now/) [Mackenzie Davis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mackenzie-davis/) > [“For the rest of us—members of that peculiar, prosaic species classified by Pierre Bourdieu as homo academicus9—dwelling poetically could mean gauging the dimensions of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/helen-sword/for-the-rest-of-us-members-of-that-peculiar-prosaic-species/) [Helen Sword](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/helen-sword/) > [It helps to be more interested in other people than you are in yourself. Inhabiting other characters is what I do.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/shaun-evans/it-helps-to-be-more-interested-in-other-people-than-you-are-in/) [Shaun Evans](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/shaun-evans/) > [Being an actor, imitating to the point of inhabiting the lives of others, may simply be a way of continuing to do what I…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/viggo-mortensen/being-an-actor-imitating-to-the-point-of-inhabiting-the-lives-of/) [Viggo Mortensen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/viggo-mortensen/) > [Strange—we are always inhabiting more than one realm of existence—but they all fit in if the art is right.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lorine-niedecker/strange-we-are-always-inhabiting-more-than-one-realm-of-existence-but/) [Lorine Niedecker](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lorine-niedecker/) > [I'm inhabiting a life I'm not supposed to be in... and at certain times in my life, I have felt a wrongness. And not…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sam-shepard/i-m-inhabiting-a-life-i-m-not-supposed-to-be-in-and-at-certain-times/) [Sam Shepard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sam-shepard/) > [Dwelling is not primarily inhabiting but taking care of and creating that space within which something comes into its own and flourishes.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/martin-heidegger/dwelling-is-not-primarily-inhabiting-but-taking-care-of-and-creating/) [Martin Heidegger](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/martin-heidegger/) Browse all 16 Inhabiting quotes ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“I wasn't able to think about them directly or summon them up in any conscious way, but as I put together their puzzles and played with their Lego pieces, building evermore complex and baroque structures, I felt that I was temporarily inhabiting them again--carrying on their little phantom lives for them by repeating the gestures they had made when they still had bodies.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Paul Auster" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-auster/i-wasn-t-able-to-think-about-them-directly-or-summon-them-up-in-any/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Inhabiting" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-auster/i-wasn-t-able-to-think-about-them-directly-or-summon-them-up-in-any/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/913/paul-auster-351_quote_i-wasn-t-able-to-think-about-them-direct_2254102.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/913/paul-auster-351_quote_i-wasn-t-able-to-think-about-them-direct_2254102.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/913/paul-auster-351_quote_i-wasn-t-able-to-think-about-them-direct_2254102.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“I wasn't able to think about them directly or summon them up in any conscious way, but as I put together…” — Paul Auster", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } }, { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Quotes", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Paul Auster", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paul-auster/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "“I wasn't able to think about...", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-auster/i-wasn-t-able-to-think-about-them-directly-or-summon-them-up-in-any/" } ], "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-auster/i-wasn-t-able-to-think-about-them-directly-or-summon-them-up-in-any/#breadcrumb" }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "publisher": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } }, { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png", "width": 512, "height": 512 } } ] } ```