“Literature differs from life because life is filled with unclassified and shapeless details and very rarely directs us towards them, while literature teaches us to observe them. This teaching is dialectical.

Literature makes us better observe life; in the process, we practice life itself; which in turn makes us read the detail in literature better; which in turn makes us better readers of life, and so on.

James Wood enthusiastically talks about fundamental concepts of prose, about narrative and the storyteller, the significance of detail, characters and dialogue, form, rhythm and music, insisting that literature is what is closest to life.