The Educated Imagination

Literature speaks the language of the imagination, and the study of literature is supposed to train and improve the imagination. But we use our imagination all the time: it comes into all our conversations and practical life: it even produces dreams while we’re asleep. Consequently, we only have the choice between a badly trained imagination and a well trained one, whether we ever read a poem or not.

-- Northrop Frye in The Educated Imagination