Quotes from Elena Ferrante

It wasn't innocent blood. To my father nothing about Amalia ever seemed innocent. He, so furious, so bitter and yet so eager for pleasure, so irascible and so egotistical, couldn't bear that she had a friendly, at times even joyful, relationship with the world. He recognized in it a trace of betrayal.

So much fuss about the greatness of this one and that one, but what virtue is there in being born with certain qualities, it's like admiring the bingo basket when you shake it and good numbers come out

There are moments when what exists on the edges of our lives, and which, it seems, will be in the background forever—an empire, a political party, a faith, a monument, but also simply the people who are part of our daily existence—collapses in an utterly unexpected way, and right when countless other things are pressing upon us.

When I gave signs of protest she nearly reminded me of the money she was giving me. She stopped in time, but not so that I didn't understand: it was like when someone is about to hit you and then doesn't.

As a result of subduing the forces of nature with the tools that we invent, we find ourselves today at the point where the force of our tools has become a greater concern than the forces of nature.

I have to relearn—I said to myself—the tranquil pace of those who believe they know where they're going and why.

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. And begin with the scum in your area, put their backs to the wall.

Perhaps the idea of money as a cement to solidify our existence and prevent it from dissolving, together with the people who were dear to us, endured. But

The waves rolled in like blue metal tubes carrying an egg white of foam on their peaks, then broke in a thousand glittering splinters and came up to the street with an oh of wonder and fear from those watching.

How many things pass through time randomly detached from the bodies and voices of persons. My mother knew the art of making clothes last forever.

il dolore si è distillato, mi ha avvilita ma non mi ha spezzata.

Now that Mario had left me, if he no longer loved me, if I in fact no longer loved him, why should I continue to carry in my flesh so many of his attributes? What I had deposited in him had surely been eliminated now by Carla in the secret years of their relationship. But as for me, if all the features that I had assimilated from him had once seemed to me lovable, how, now that they no longer seemed lovable, was I going to tear them out of me?

tal vez con los hombres las cosas solo pueden funcionar de este modo: vives con ellos un tiempo, tienes hijos y fuera. Si eran superficiales como Nino, se marchaban sin sentir ningún tipo de obligación; si eran serios como Pietro, no faltaban a ninguno de sus deberes, y en caso necesario daban lo mejor de sí mismos. Sin embargo, el tiempo de las fidelidades y las convivencias sólidas había pasado tanto para los hombres como para las mujeres.

It's relaxing, I thought, I was wrong not to come sooner. I had a friend of my age with her own house, full of opulent, orderly things. That

understand, and understanding was something that we loved to do.

Vedi? Nelle favole si fa come si vuole e nella realtà si fa come si può».

Ma in quell'occasione imparai un'arte in cui poi sono diventata molto brava. Trattenni la disperazione, la trattenni sul bordo degli occhi lucidi, tanto che Lila mi disse in dialetto: «Non te ne importa?». Non risposi. Provavo un dolore violentissimo, ma sentivo che più forte ancora sarebbe stato il dolore di litigare con lei. Ero

You wanted to write novels, I created a novel with real people, with real blood, in reality.

answered slowly: I don't know, I don't want to know. And then I admitted that there had been a kind of admiration for her body, maybe that, yes, but I ruled out anything ever happening between us. Too much fear, if we had been seen we would have been beaten to death.

But then, in Piazza di Carbonara, from stones she moved on to weapons, and it became the place where men fought to the last drop of blood. Beggars and gentlemen and princes hurried to see people killing each other in revenge. When some handsome youth fell, pierced by a blade beaten on the anvil of death, immediately beggars, bourgeois citizens, kings and queens offered applause that rose to the stars.

E poi amavo la scrittura di chi ti fa affacciare da ogni rigo per guardare di sotto e sentire la vertigine della profondità, la nerezza dell'inferno.

Para escrever é preciso desejar que alguma coisa sobreviva a ti

Alles bewoog. De vuurzee onder de aardkorst, de ovens van de sterren, en de planeten, en de universa, en het licht in de duisternis, en de stilte in de ijskou. Maar ik voelde...dat angst er bij mij niet in slaagde wortel te schieten. Alles wat op me afkwam –…– zou voorbijgaan en ik –... Ã¢â'¬â€œ, ik zou overeind blijven, ik was de punt van de passer die altijd stilstaat terwijl het potlood eromheen draait en cirkels trekt.

È brutto il cerchio del giorno vuoto, quando la sera ti si stringe intorno al collo come un cappio.