Quotes from Natalia Ginzburg

When I write stories I am like someone who is in her own country, walking along streets that she has known since she was a child, between walls and trees that are hers.

Being moderate with oneself and generous with others; this is what is meant by having a just relationship with money, by being free as far as money is concerned.

But that was the best time of my life, and only now that it has gone from me forever -- only now do I realize it.

Today, as never before, the fates of men are so intimately linked to one another that a disaster for one is a disaster for everybody.

You aren't ill: it is just that you are made of second-rate materials.

Pavese spiegava che veniva là non per coraggio, perché lui di coraggio non ne aveva; e nemmeno per spirito di sacrificio. Veniva perché se no non avrebbe saputo come passar le serate; e non tollerava di passar le serate in solitudine.

Algunas veces estaba muy triste, pero durante mucho tiempo nosotros pensamos que se curaría de esa tristeza cuando se decidiera a hacerse adulto, porque la suya nos parecía una tristeza como de muchacho, la melancolía voluptuosa y despistada del muchacho que todavía no tiene los pies sobre la tierra y se mueve en el mundo árido y solitario de los sueños.

Vivevano così, in stretta amicizia, dividendosi il poco che avevano, e senza appoggiarsi a nessun gruppo, senza fare progetti per il futuro, perché non c'era nessun futuro possibile; probabilmente sarebbe scoppiata la guerra, e l'avrebbero vinta gli stupidi; perché gli stupidi, Mario diceva, vincevano sempre.

Two little provincial intellectuals, that was what they were, and that is the dreariest and oddest thing that can exist on earth.

Someone who has seen a house collapse knows only too clearly what frail things little vases of flowers and pictures and white walls are. He knows only too well what a house is made of.

Fanfares of trumpets usually announced only small, futile things, it was a way fate had of teasing people. You felt a great exaltation and heard a loud fanfare of trumpets in the sky. But the serious things of life, on the contrary, took you by surprise, they spurted up all of a sudden like water.

porque cuando a alguien le iban mal las cosas sentía siempre un ligero placer que disimulaba bajo un gran afán de ofrecer ayuda (...)

Ma è vero che a un certo punto della nostra vita i rimorsi li inzuppiamo nel caffè la mattina come biscotti.

So I wasn't there when he died, which I regret. But after a certain point in life a person has to dunk her regrets in the morning coffee, just like biscuits.

Yo tampoco te quiero, es imposible quererte. ¿Y sabes por qué? Porque no tienes valor para ir hasta el fondo de las cosas. No eres más que un tapón de corcho, eso es lo que eres. Nadie te quiere porque tú no quieres a nadie.

This life now has nothing to equal to the places and moments we passed through to get here

Creo que la poesía y el teatro requieren las mismas cosas. Creo que requieren una absoluta inmovilidad, un pleno abandono, una total atención, un profundo silencio.

At times he was very unhappy, but for a long time we thought that he would be cured of this unhappiness when he decided to become an adult; his unhappiness seemed like that of a boy—the absent-minded, voluptuous melancholy of a boy who has not yet got his feet on the ground and who lives in the sterile, solitary world of his dreams.

I think we will send you money periodically. Not that money will solve anything, since you're alone, broke, unsettled, and unreliable. But we're all unreliable and broken somewhere inside and sometimes it seems desperately attractive to be unrooted and breaking nothing but your own solitude. That's how people find each other, and understand.

They fought about politics. Angelica's husband has ironclad ideas and doesn't like them to be questioned.' 'If they were really ironclad he wouldn't mind discussing them. If he gets that angry, it means his ideas are more like cheese than iron.' (Happiness, As Such)

Allora io avevo fede in un avvenire facile e lieto, ricco di desideri appagati, di esperienze e di comuni imprese. Ma era quello il tempo migliore della mia vita e solo adesso che m'è sfuggito per sempre, solo adesso lo so. [Inverno in Abruzzo - Le piccole virtù]

Los fantasmas de nuestra infancia son indestructibles y no saben envejecer

Era livre quem aceitava viver o que havia para ser vivido. Era livre quem fazia dos pensamentos saúde e riqueza, e não uma armadilha para acabar asfixiado.

Aportarán también su profundo y obstinado amor por el ocio, por la contemplación, por una vida solitaria y apartada, y el deseo de una época en el que haya un amplio espacio para los que no tienen ganas de hacer nada.