There is no question that intertextuality plays an enormous role in the work of W. G. Sebald. This investigation takes up the question of its function in the context of Sebald’s poetics. A close reading of his literary scholarship reveals that quotations in his work are intended both to guide reception by mystifying the texts, and to create a subtext from the reference texts by exploiting their potential meanings. That subtext in turn provides an insight into the metaphysics of Sebald’s narratives.