"It looks like literature is wasting time..."

"It looks like it’s wasting time, but literature is actually the ultimate time-saver — because it gives us access to a range of emotions and events that it would take you years, decades, millennia to try to experience directly. Literature is the greatest reality simulator — a machine that puts you through infinitely more situations than you can ever directly witness."

~ after poet Mary Ruefle, quoted in 'Someone Reading a Book is a Sign of Order in the World'

[Hat tip Lynn.C.]