But to be perfectly frank, this childish idea that the author of a novel has some special insight into the characters in the novel...it's ridiculous. That novel was composed of scratches on a page, dear. The characters inhabiting it have no life outside of those scratches. What happened to them? They all ceased to exist the moment the novel ended.

Summary

This quote challenges the notion that authors have a deep understanding or connection with the characters they create in their novels. It argues that characters solely exist within the confines of the written words, lacking any existence outside of their literary world. It dismisses the belief that authors possess unique insights into their characters, asserting that they are merely manifestations of ink on paper. The quote emphasizes the limited existence of fictional characters and questions the validity of author-character relationships beyond the scope of the novel.

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