By the end, you should be inside your character, actually operating from within somebody else, and knowing him pretty well, as that person knows himself or herself. You're sort of a predator, an invader of people.
William TrevorRead
The capacity you're thinking of is imagination; without it there can be no understanding, indeed no fiction.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Imagination is essential for comprehension and creativity.
In this quote, William Trevor emphasizes the significance of imagination as a fundamental element that allows individuals to understand and interpret the world around them. Without the ability to imagine, one cannot grasp complex ideas or engage in creative expression, which binds us to the realm of fiction and thought.
Themes
ImaginationUnderstandingCreativityFictionThought
In practice
Example use cases
A speaker at a literary festival discussing the role of imagination in storytelling.
More from William Trevor
All quotes →My fiction may, now and again, illuminate aspects of the human condition, but I do not consciously set out to do so: I am a storyteller.
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I read hungrily and delightedly, and have realized since that you can’t write unless you read.
William TrevorRead
People run away to be alone,' he said. Some people had to be alone.
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