How to Talk About Books You Haven't Read

by Pierre Bayard

we show an astonishing ability to reconstruct the past to better conform to our wishes.

that secret society composed of those who in every age give the age its real value.

it is not at all necessary to be familiar with what you’re talking about in order to talk about it accurately.

Nothing in his book gives the least difficulty unless it be the wonder itself of encountering none.

Blessed are those writers who relieve us of the burden of thought, and who dexterously weave a luminous veil over the complexity of things.11