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From C.S. Lewis in An Exper­i­ment in Criticism:

What then is the good of … occu­py­ing our hearts with sto­ries of what never hap­pened and enter­ing vic­ar­i­ously into feel­ings which we should try to avoid having in our own person? … The near­est I have yet got to an answer is that we seek an enlarge­ment of our being. We want to be more than our­selves. We want to see with other eyes, to imag­ine with other imag­i­na­tions, to feel with other hearts, as well as our own. … In read­ing great lit­er­a­ture I become a thou­sand men and yet remain myself.

(from Intellectuelle)