Quotes from Elena Ferrante

Ã…Ëœíct znamená spoutat ztracené ?asy a prostory.

Without reserve, I can say that my entire identity is in the books I write.

dull things of every day, she was afraid of the silence of

In other words there were many positive judgments, but often in sharp contrast to one another, as if the reviewers hadn't read the book that was in the bookstores but, rather, each had evoked a fantasy book fabricated from his own biases.

What a complex foamy mixture a couple is. Even if the relationship shatters and ends, it continues to act in secret pathways, it doesn't die, it doesn't want to die.

Ano, sta?ilo zatáhnout za nit, aby si ?lovÄ›k mohl dál hrát se záhadnou postavou mojí mámy, tu ji obohatit, tu ji ponížit. Ale uvÄ›domila jsem si, že už necítím potÃ…â"¢ebu to dÄ›lat, a pohnula jsem se v paprsku svÄ›tla pÃ…â"¢esnÄ› tak, jak se mi vždycky zdálo, že se pohybuje ona.

L'infanzia è una fabbrica di menzogne che durano all'imperfetto

I realized in a flash that the memory was already literature and that perhaps Lila was right: my book—even though it was having so much success—really was bad, and this was because it was well organized, because it was written with obsessive care, because I hadn't been able to imitate the disjointed, unaesthetic, illogical, shapeless banality of things.

he must have read in my face that it was a happy moment. For months I had been grinding away, feeling alone, ugly.

I am therefore Italian, completely and with pride. But if I could, I would descend into all languages and let myself be permeated by them all. Even the terrible Google Translate consoles me. We can be much more than what we happen to be.

Tutto insomma tremolava, si inarcava come per cambiare i connotati, non farsi riconoscere negli odi accumulati, nelle tensioni, nelle brutture, e mostrare invece una faccia nuova.

You see? In the fairy tales one does as one wants, and in reality one does what one can." "That's

If you don't, you're guilty not only on a human level but also on a political one." "What's the crime?" "The waste of intelligence. A community that finds it natural to suffocate with the care of home and children so many women's intellectual energies is its own enemy and doesn't realize it." I waited in silence

Byla jsem jediný možný zdroj pÃ…â"¢íbÄ›hu, nemohla jsem a ani jsem nechtÄ›la pátrat mimo sebe.

My daughter is a girl," Fernando explained, embarrassed.

No quiero ser así, me decía, especialmente en el duermevela; sin embargo, esa era yo, y percatarme de que no conseguía manifestarme más que de ese modo —áspera, criticona— me impulsaba a veces no a corregirme, sino, con un placer perverso, a ser peor.

Reality can't stay inside the elegant moulds of art; it always spills over, indecorously.

sentido alguno, y que era bonito solo vernos de vez en cuando para oír el sonido loco del cerebro de la una resonando dentro del sonido loco del cerebro de la otra.

Yo me siento como el caballero de una novela antigua que, encerrado en su armadura resplandeciente, tras acometer mil empresas prodigiosas por el mundo, se topa con un pastor harapiento, desnutrido, que sin apartarse nunca del pastizal, con portentoso coraje doblega y domina a horribles bestias con sus propias manos.

laborious filters of Italian pronunciation

We have to work with consistency, with discipline, step by step, no matter how things are going around us, and be careful not to make a mistake, because we pay for our mistakes.

She was submissive, she gave in immediately out of fear of not being liked, it depressed her that she had given in.

Que desperdício seria, pensei, estragar nossa história dando espaço excessivo aos maus sentimentos: os maus sentimentos são inevitáveis, mas o essencial é represá-los.

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