Quotes from Elena Ferrante

Languages for me have a secret venom that every so often foams up and for which there is no antidote.

Fiz uma pausa, depois continuei: talvez haja algo errado nessa vontade dos homens de nos instruir; na época eu era uma menina e não percebia que, naquele seu desejo de me transformar, estava a prova de que não gostava de mim tal como eu era, queria que eu fosse outra, ou melhor, não desejava simplesmente uma mulher, mas uma mulher como ele imaginava que poderia ser se tivesse nascido mulher.

Suurin osa äideistä suhtautui kalseasti vapaana juokseviin koiriin. He siirsivät muut ahdistuksenaiheensa eläimiin.

She talked to the child and her doll in the pleasing cadence of the Neapolitan dialect that I love, the tender language of playfulness and sweet nothings. I was enchanted. Languages for me have a secret venom that every so often foams up and for which there is no antidote. I remember the dialect on my mother's lips when she lost that gentle cadence and yelled at us, poisoned by her unhappiness: I can't take you anymore, I can't take any more.

That made me think that this story would continue forever, recounting now the efforts of children without privileges to improve themselves by getting books from the old shelves, as Lila and I had done as girls, and now the thread of seductive chatter, promises, deceptions, of blood that prevents any true improvement in my city or in the world.

But I must have overdone it, and the relationship between truth and fiction must have gone awry: now every street, every building had become recognizable

2007), and The Lost Daughter

What was I like, really?

If I'd known that to get a diploma and a degree Al you needed to have was free time, to be shut up in a place without worrying about earning a living, and, with discipline, learning by heart pages and page of some books, I would have done it before," he said once, in a teasing tone.

Después le tendí el libro a Lila, le dije: ¿Quieres verlo? Ella respondió que no con la cabeza y una mueca displicente.

Studieren galt als ein Trick der pfiffigsten jungen Leute zur Vermeidung harter Arbeit.

me había puesto en su lugar. O mejor aún, le había hecho un lugar en mí.

I feel no nostalgia for our childhood: it was full of violence.

Na druhou stranu jsem v sobÄ› nechtÄ›la nebo nedokázala nechat zakoÃ…â"¢enit nikoho. Za ?as pÃ…â"¢ijdu i o možnost mít dÄ›ti. Žádná lidská bytost se ode mÄ› neodtrhne s dÄ›sem, s nímž jsem se já odtrhla od svojí mámy jen proto, že se mi nikdy nepodaÃ…â"¢ilo se k ní pÃ…â"¢imknout definitivnÄ›.

Places of the imagination are visited in books. Seen in reality they may be hard to recognize; they are disappointing, they might even seem fake.

He had combed his hair in a way that revealed his broad forehead, framed by thick hair and eyebrows. His face had become thinner, and the prominent lines of the nose, the mouth, the cheekbones formed a design more pleasing than I remembered. He looked ten years younger, the heaviness of his hips, of his chest, of his stomach had disappeared, he even seemed taller.

Parlammo un po' di quando aveva conosciuto Fernando e s'erano innamorati, disse una cosa che mi colpì molto. Disse: "Vuoi bene per tutta la vita a persone che non sai mai veramente chi sono".

Es war eine wundervolle Erfahrung«, sagte ich zu ihr. »Was denn?« »Die Schwangerschaft, die Geburt. Adele ist bildschön und so lieb.« Sie antwortete: »Jeder erzählt sich das Leben so, wie es ihm gefällt.

He's gone, you're still here. You'll no longer enjoy the gleam of his eyes, of his words, but so what? Organize your defenses, preserve your wholeness, don't let yourself break like an ornament, you're not a knickknack, no woman is a knickknack.

Eine Gemeinschaft, die es normal findet, so viel weibliche Intelligenz mit der Sorge um Kinder und Haushalt zu ersticken, schadet sich selbst und merkt es nicht mal.

realized that on his lips was a mute laugh that I had never seen before. It became him, the expression of a sympathetic man who wishes to show that he knows what's what.

Non basta conoscere l'alfabeto, pensò, le difficoltà sono tante.

Maybe I should tell her that things without meaning are the most beautiful ones. It's a good sentence, she'll like it.

Mas eu não invento nada, só escuto, o não dito fala mais do que o dito.