“Les grandes histoires fantastiques, les mythes, les contes de fées ressemblent vraiment aux rêves : ils parlent de l'inconscient à l'inconscient, ils s'expriment dans la langue de l'inconscient - par symboles et archétypes.”Le langage de la nuit : Essais sur la science-fiction et la fantasy
En anglais : "The great fantasies, myths and tales are indeed like dreams: they speak from the unconscious to the unconscious, in the language of the unconscious – symbol and archetype. Though they use words, they work the way music does: they short-circuit verbal reasoning, and go straight to the thoughts that lie too deep to utter. They cannot be translated fully into the language of reason, but only a Logical Positivist, who also finds Beethoven's Ninth Symphony meaningless, would claim that they are therefore meaningless. They are profoundly meaningful, and usable – practical – in terms of ethics; of insight; of growth… It also seems to me that most of the great works of fantasy are about that journey [to self-knowledge]; and that fantasy is the medium best suited to a description of that journey, its perils and rewards. The events of a voyage into the unconscious are not describable in the language of rational daily life: only the symbolic language of the deeper psyche will fit them without trivializing them." The Language of the Night