Book Quote by Pierre Bayard

“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.” quote by Pierre Bayard — Download Open 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 to conjure these specters.””

Pierre Bayard

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More by Pierre Bayard

“[…] 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 filling these gaps in a conscious way,…

Pierre Bayard

“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

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“[…] 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 effective about this blessing in most contexts, but…

Pierre Bayard

“As may be seen, there is only one sensible piece of advice to give to those who find themselves having to talk to an author about one of his books without having read it: praise it without going into detail. An author does not expect a summary or a rational analysis of his book and would even prefer you not…

Pierre Bayard

“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 own will, their own autonomy, it gives the literary universe…

Pierre Bayard

“(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

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“Criticism demands infinitely more culture than artistic creation.”

Pierre Bayard

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“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

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“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

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“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

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“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

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“Our relationship with literary characters, at least to those that exercise a certain attraction over us, rests in fact on a denial. We know…

Pierre Bayard

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Explore all 17 Pierre Bayard quotes

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