Quote sampling method

This is a tentative method but I’m trying to see how accurate of an impression you can get from an author by just reading their quotes (not life quotes just quotes from the œuvre) — is it like blood sampling, gelato sampling?

Is there an emergent property on the level of the paragraph? The level of the chapter? Then finally the whole book? Surely there are things that a paragraph can do, a chapter can do, that a sentence cannot.

But if I want to check the calibre of a boat, isn’t the interior material indicative of SOMETHING? Give me a piece of wood. I can tell by touching it and holding it in my hand whether we are talking about mass production or semi/full custom builds. A sturdy piece of American cherry simply does not end up in a piece of shit charter village bus. And the quotes we lift from an œuvre are always prime examples of the things we found most compelling, like wood, rather than say a piece of dried epoxy.

What is created on the paragraph level? Chapter level? What emerges? Emotions I think. Proof of concept.

But the sentences — ok maybe you won’t like a book just because you liked one quote. But you surely won’t like a book if you cannot even find one quote to like.