Menu

 Authors
A B C D E F
G H I J K L
M N O P Q R
S T U V W S
Y Z
Get Socialize
My Account
Make Free Wallpaper

"48 Italo Calvino Quotes & Sayings

           /    
Born: 15 October 1923. Died: 19 September 1985 | Journalist | Writer |

You take delight not in a city's seven or seventy wonders, but in the answer it gives to a question of yours.

Wonder Delight City Question
  Favorite Make wallpaper
A classic is a book that has never finished saying what it has to say
Classics Book Finished Saying
  Favorite Make wallpaper

It is not the voice that commands the story; it is the ear.

Voice Commands Story Ear
  Favorite Make wallpaper

The human race is a zone of living things that should be defined by tracing its confines.

Human Race Defined Tracing
  Favorite Make wallpaper
In love, as in gluttony, pleasure is a matter of the utmost precision.
Love Gluttony Pleasure Precision
  Favorite Make wallpaper

Reading is a possession, a march toward a possession.

Reading Possession March
  Favorite Make wallpaper

I'm afraid I don't think I really have a life on which something can be written.

Afraid Think Life Written
  Favorite Make wallpaper

I'm a Communist, fully convinced and dedicated to my cause.

Communist Convinced Dedicated Cause
  Favorite Make wallpaper

I am more and more convinced that literature is made up of works, genres, schools, discussions, problems, collective work in order to solve certain problems.

Convinced Literature Made Works
  Favorite Make wallpaper

The writer is someone who tears himself to pieces in order to liberate his neighbor.

Writer Tears Pieces Liberate.neighbor
  Favorite Make wallpaper

Although I am small, ugly and dirty, I am highly ambitious, and at the slightest flattery, I immediately start to strut like a turkey.

Small Dirty Ambitious Flattery
  Favorite Make wallpaper

Man is simply the best chance we know of that matter has had of providing itself with information about itself.

Man Best Chance Matter
  Favorite Make wallpaper
I have spent more time with other people's books than with my own. I do not regret it.
Spent Time People Books
  Favorite Make wallpaper

I suffer from everyday life.

Suffer Everyday Life
  Favorite Make wallpaper

An exotic birthplace on its own is not informative of anything.

Exotic Birthplace Informative
  Favorite Make wallpaper

My university work was not central to my education.

University Work Central Education
  Favorite Make wallpaper

Every morning I tell myself, 'Today has to be productive' - and then something happens that prevents me from writing.

Today Productive Happens Prevent
  Favorite Make wallpaper
Thoughtful lightness can make frivolity seem dull and heavy.
Thoughtful Lightness Frivolity Dull
  Favorite Make wallpaper
Good literature can be created only with something that is different from literature.
Good Literature Created Different
  Favorite Make wallpaper

A classic is a book which with each rereading offers as much of a sense of discovery as the first reading.

Classic Book Rereading Discovery
  Favorite Make wallpaper

A human being becomes human not through the casual convergence of certain biological conditions, but through an act of will and love on the part of other people.

Human Casual Convergence Biological
  Favorite Make wallpaper

I do not understand how you can associate abortion with an idea of hedonism or the good life.

Abortion Associate Good Good Life
  Favorite Make wallpaper

In abortion, the person who is massacred, physically and morally, is the woman.

Abortion Morally Person Physically
  Favorite Make wallpaper

Bringing a child into the world makes sense only if this child is wanted consciously and freely by its two parents. If it is not, then it is simply animal and criminal behavior.

Animal Behavior Bringing Child
  Favorite Make wallpaper

Every time I've had to do journalistic investigations, I've cursed, but later I discovered that it had helped me enormously with writing fiction. It's the one thing that can save me from becoming an academic writer.

Academic Becoming Cursed Discovered
  Favorite Make wallpaper

Now you mustn't think that I don't have any ideas for novels in my head. I've got ideas for ten novels in my head. But with every idea I have, I already foresee the wrong novels I would write, because I also have critical ideas in my head; I've got a full theory of the perfect novel, and that's what stumps me.

Also Any Because Critical
  Favorite Make wallpaper

Writers divide into those who write biting their nails and those who don't. Some writers write licking their finger.

Biting Divide Finger Licking
  Favorite Make wallpaper

A classic is a work which persists as a background noise even when a present that is totally incompatible with it holds sway.

Background Classic Even Holds
  Favorite Make wallpaper

Classics are books which, the more we think we know them through hearsay, the more original, unexpected, and innovative we find them when we actually read them.

Actually Books Classics Find
  Favorite Make wallpaper

I'm only a novelist on occasion. Many of my books are made up of brief texts collected together, short stories, or else they are books that have an overall structure but are composed of various texts.

Books Brief Collected Composed
  Favorite Make wallpaper

I write by hand, making many, many corrections. I would say I cross out more than I write. I have to hunt for words when I speak, and I have the same difficulty when writing.

Corrections Cross Difficulty Hand
  Favorite Make wallpaper

I read Freud because I find him an excellent writer... a writer of police thrillers that can be followed with great passion.

Because Excellent Find Followed
  Favorite Make wallpaper

In 'Cosmicomics,' I came close to science fiction - I was inspired by cosmological subjects and the workings of the universe and invented a character who was a sort of witness to everything that was happening inside the solar system.

Came Character Close Everything
  Favorite Make wallpaper

Sometimes I try to concentrate on the story I would like to write, and I realize that what interests me is something else entirely, or, rather, not anything precise but everything that does not fit in what I ought to write.

Anything Concentrate Does Else
  Favorite Make wallpaper

Rarely does an interviewer ask questions you did not expect. I have given a lot of interviews, and I have concluded that the questions always look alike. I could always give the same answers.

Alike Always Answers Ask
  Favorite Make wallpaper

Every day I tell myself that reading newspapers is a waste of time, but then... I cannot do without them. They are like a drug.

Cannot Day Every Every Day
  Favorite Make wallpaper

A tale is born from an image, and the image extends and creates a network of meanings that are always equivocal.

Always Born Creates Image
  Favorite Make wallpaper

I was born in Cuba, and my parents were tropical agronomists.

Born Cuba I Was Born Parents
  Favorite Make wallpaper

Without translation, I would be limited to the borders of my own country. The translator is my most important ally. He introduces me to the world.

Ally Borders Country He
  Favorite Make wallpaper

When I'm writing a book, I prefer not to speak about it, because only when the book is finished can I try to understand what I've really done and to compare my intentions with the result.

About Because Book Compare
  Favorite Make wallpaper

What is modern art but the attempt to pinpoint vague, incorporeal, inexpressible sensations? What is modern art, I would add, but the most solemn pile of nonsense that ever appeared on Earth?

Add Appeared Art Attempt
  Favorite Make wallpaper

I write... sonnets... and writing sonnets is boring. You have to find rhymes; you have to write hendecasyllables; so after a while, I get bored and my drawer is overflowing with unfinished short poems.

After Bored Boring Drawer
  Favorite Make wallpaper

I change my method and field of reference from book to book because I can never believe in the same thing two times running.

Because Believe Book Change
  Favorite Make wallpaper

The public figure of the writer, the writer-character, the 'personality-cult' of the author, are all becoming for me more and more intolerable in others, and consequently in myself.

Author Becoming Consequently Figure
  Favorite Make wallpaper

My stories are full of facts; they have a beginning and an end. For that reason, they will never... occupy a place in contemporary literature.

Beginning Contemporary End Facts
  Favorite Make wallpaper

Turin is a city which entices a writer towards vigor, linearity, style. It encourages logic, and through logic it opens the way towards madness.

City Encourages Logic Madness
  Favorite Make wallpaper

I think today that politics registers very late things which society manifests through other channels, and I feel that often politics distorts and mystifies reality.

Channel Feel I Feel I Think
  Favorite Make wallpaper

I would very much like to be one of those writers who have something really clear in their head to say, and throughout their life they promote this idea in their works.

Clear Head Idea Life
  Favorite Make wallpaper

Italo Calvino Quotes & Sayings