I know Stephen Dedalus better than my father. As far as my father is concerned, who knows how many episodes of his life I ignored, how many secret thoughts he never disclosed, how many times he concealed his sorrows, his quandaries, his weaknesses, so that after his death I shall never recover these secrets and perhaps fundamental aspects of his personality.

In the latest PEN Podcast, Umberto Eco discusses the advantages of fiction for life and death at the event The Third Annual Arthur Miller Freedom to Write Lecture: Umberto Eco, part of the 2008 PEN World Voices Festival.