Quotes from Italo Calvino

Nell'universo infinito della letteratura s'aprono sempre altre vie da esplorare, nuovissime o antichissime, stili e forme che possono cambiare la nostra immagine del mondo...

The historical events which mothers take part in acquire the greatness and invincibility of natural phenomena.

Don't believe that the book is losing sight of you, Reader. The you that was shifted to the Other Reader can, at any sentence, be addressed to you again. You are always a possible you. Who would dare to sentence you to the loss of the you, a catastrophe as terrible as the loss of the I. For a second-person discourse to become a novel, at least two you's are required, distinct and concomitant, which stand out from the crowd of he's, she's and they's.

You hope to always to encounter true newness, which, having been new once, will continue to be so.

Non era molto, ma a me che non cercavo altro che immagini da tenere negli occhi, forse bastava.

Podré decir alguna vez: "hoy escribe", al igual que "hoy llueve", "hoy hace viento"?

There must be fidelity to a goal and purity of heart, values fundamental to salvation and triumph. There must also be beauty, a sign of grace that can be masked by the humble, ugly guise of a frog; and above all, there must be present the infinite possibilities of mutation, the unifying element in everything: men, beasts, plants, things.

Perché ogni scelta ha un rovescio cioè una rinuncia, e così non c'è differenza tra l'atto di scegliere e l'atto di rinunciare.

Creating a space and time for reflection and imagination and study presupposes an accumulation of wealth, and behind every accumulation of wealth there are obscure lives subject to labour and sacrifices and oppression without any hope. Every project or image that allows us to to reach out towards another way of being outside the injustice that surrounds us carries the mark of the injustice without which it could not have been conceived.

Mas a desgraça é que foi levado à loucura por Eros, deus pagão, que quanto mais reprimido, mais devasta...

tal como todavía la recuerdo, tal como incluso ahora que la Luna se ha convertido en ese pequeño círculo plano y lejano, siempre la voy buscando con la mirada en cuanto en el cielo aparece el primer gajo; y cuanto más crece más me imagino verla, a ella o alguna cosa de ella pero nada más que a ella, en cien, en mil vistas distintas, a ella que hace Luna a la Luna y que en cada luna llena obliga a los perros a aullar durante toda la noche y a mí con ellos.

Sono convinto che scrivere prosa non dovrebbe essere diverso dallo scrivere poesia; in entrambi i casi è ricerca d'una espressione necessaria, unica, densa, concisa, memorabile.

T]he fact that he is a pastor has nothing to do with his physical appearance, these are politicians whose only weapon is the pulpit and even their non-violence does not really have a mystical aura about it: it is the only form of struggle possible and they use it with the controlled political skill which the extreme harshness of their conditions has taught them.

My work had two objectives: the presentation of every type of folktale, the existence of which is documented in Italian dialects; and the representation of all regions of Italy.

Mientras sé que en el mundo hay alguien que hace juegos de prestidigitación solo por amor al juego, mientras sé que hay una mujer que ama la lectura por la lectura, puedo convencerme de que el mundo continúa.

I have already crossed the café a couple of times and have looked out the front door onto the invisible square, and each time the wall of darkness has driven back inside this sort of illuminated limbo suspended between the two darknesses, the bundle of tracks and the foggy city.

My faith in the future of literature rests on the knowledge that there are things that only literature, with its particular capacities, can give us. I

The tale is not beautiful if nothing is added to it"—in other words, its value consists in what is woven and rewoven into it.

Who ever said this author had an unmistakable tone? On the contrary, he is known as an author who changes greatly from one book to the next. And in these very changes you recognize him as himself.

Entrai a Ipazia un mattino, un giardino di magnolie si specchiava su lagune azzurre, io andavo tra le siepi sicuro di scoprire belle e giovani dame fare il bagno: ma in fondo all'acqua i granchi mordevano gli occhi delle suicide con la pietra legata al collo e i capelli verdi d'alghe.

In gioventù ogni libro nuovo che si legge è come un nuovo occhio che si apre e modifica la vista degli altri occhi o libri-occhi che si avevano prima.

A pause. Then Ludmilla's voice resumes slowly as if she were trying to express something not easily defined. "Yes, it is. I like it very much… Still, I wish the things I read weren't all present, so solid you can touch them; I would like to feel a presence around them, something else, you don't quite know what, the sign of some unknown thing…

With the revolution, there are people who change so much they become unrecognizable, and other people who feel they are the same selves as before. It must be a sign that they were prepared in advance for the new times.

I am becoming convinced that the world wants to tell me something, send me messages, signals, warnings.