Schami has made a distinction between Illusion and Phantasie (illusion and vision). Illusion is an unachievable dream, distorting the world to something impossible, whereas vision is the imaginative construction of achievable goals; rooted in reality it indicates something which can be striven for, but this reality means also accepting the other possibility, that there may not be a happy ending. Asked by a radio interviewer whether literature is an escape from reality, Schami answers, yes: but one which enables the reader to return to reality better equipped.