Quotes from Elena Ferrante

That is the situation in the factory where I work. The union has never gone in and the workers are nothing but poor victims of blackmail, dependent on the law of the owner, that is: I pay you and so I possess you and I possess your life, your family, and everything that surrounds you, and if you don't do as I say I'll ruin you.

Solo se dejaba distraer, si es que se puede decir así, por otro motivo de sufrimiento. Un dolor nuevo obraba en ella como una especie de antídoto.

Tu capisci, Lenú, che cosa succede alle persone: abbiamo troppa roba dentro e questo ci gonfia, ci rompe.

Ognuno si organizza la memoria come gli conviene.

I was secretly convinced that I would truly exist only at the moment when my signature, Elena Greco, appeared in print...

No es locura, Dede, es dolor. -No derramó ni una lágrima. -Las lágrimas no son el dolor. -Sí, pero sin las lágrimas, ¿quién te asegura que el dolor existe?

I became anxious if I lost him, I was happy when I saw him return. In other words I loved him and knew it and was content to love him.

They were just like the relations from whom I had fled as a girl. I couldn't bear them and yet they held me tight, I had them all inside me.

Para escribir hay que desear que algo te sobreviva.

Forse, di fronte all'abbandono, siamo tutti uguali; forse nemmeno una testa molto ordinata può reggere alla scoperta di non essere amata.

Para qué habrán servido entonces todas estas páginas. Me proponía aferrarla, tenerla otra vez a mi lado, y me moriré sin saber si lo he conseguido.

something had begun to emanate from Lila's mobile body that the males sensed, an energy that dazed them, like the swelling sound of beauty arriving. The music had to stop before they returned to themselves

A veces me pregunto dónde se habrá desvanecido. En el fondo del mar. Dentro de una grieta o en una galería subterránea cuya existencia sólo ella conoce. En una vieja bañera repleta de un potente ácido. Dentro de un foso carbonero de otros tiempos, de esos a los que dedicaba tantas palabras. En la cripta de una pequeña iglesia de montaña abandonada. En una de las tantas dimensiones que nosotros todavía no conocemos.

In a short while I wished I could talk every day to a boy on that level: how many mistakes I had made with him; what foolishness it had been to want him, love him, and yet always avoid him.

Ogni rapporto intenso tra esseri umani è pieno di tagliole e se si vuole che duri bisogna imparare a schivarle. Lo

En los países con cierto bienestar ha predominado una medianía que oculta los horrores del resto del mundo. Cuando de esos horrores se desprende una violencia que llega hasta el interior de nuestras ciudades y nuestras costumbres nos sobresaltamos, nos alarmamos.

Era el hombre que siempre había amado, o un desconocido al que estaba obligando a asumir una fisonomía clara y definitiva?

Don't be timid. You're a writer, use your role, test it, make something of it. These are decisive times, everything is turning upside down. Participate, be present.

It was as if she wanted to take the power away even from the realistic possibility of violent death by reducing it to words, to a form that could be controlled.

She deserved Nino, in other words, because she thought that to love him meant to try to have him, not to hope that he would want her.

The attentions of Pasquale Peluso consoled me greatly, I liked that he made me laugh. Maybe I'm not so ugly, I thought, maybe I can't see myself.

el amor terminaba solo cuando era posible regresar sin temor o disgusto a sí mismos

They had all known one another a long time, they knew they were complicit victims, and they had no doubt about who the whistleblower was: she, the only one who behaved from the start as if the need to work didn't go hand in hand with the need to be humiliated.

I buoni sentimenti sono fragili, con me l'amore non resiste. Non resiste l'amore per un uomo, non resiste nemmeno l'amore per i figli, presto si buca. Guardi nel foro e vedi la nebulosa delle buone intenzioni confondersi con quella delle cattive. [...] Voler bene scorre insieme al voler male, e io non riesco, non riesco a condensarmi intorno a nessuna buona volontà.