There is a frakking quote somewhere about how characters may live life more truly and fully than we do, perhaps it says more purely, and I can't remember where it is.

Is it this?

If you will practice being fictional for a while, you will understand that fictional characters are sometimes more real than people with bodies and heartbeats. - Richard Bach, *Illusions*

(I keep meaning to read that...it's a collection of essays, I think.)