Javier Marias, Paris Review interview

Illusions are important. What you foresee or what you remember can be as important as what really happens. We usually tell our own story by mentioning only the positive things, but there is also the negative part of your life that forms you: what you didn't do, what you renounced, what you didn't dare to do, what you doubted and discarded, what you dreamt of, what you expected, what you left aside, what you didn't study but thought you would, the job you didn't take, the job they didn't give you even though you wanted it. The things you're not are a part of you as well.