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Italo Calvino Quotes
Italo Calvino Quotes
Italo Calvino
Italian
Journalist
Born:
Oct 15
,
1923
Died:
Sep 19
,
1985
Books
Every
Me
Think
Writing
You
Related authors:
Ernesto Teodoro Moneta
Giovanni Guareschi
Giovanni Papini
Loretta Napoleoni
Luigi Barzini
Oriana Fallaci
Renata Adler
Without translation, I would be limited to the borders of my own country. The translator is my most important ally. He introduces me to the world.
Italo Calvino
Me
World
Country
Important
Own
Translation
Would
Would-Be
Borders
My Own
He
Ally
Most
Without
Limited
Translator
It is not the voice that commands the story; it is the ear.
Italo Calvino
Communication
Voice
Commands
Story
Ear
A classic is a book that has never finished saying what it has to say.
Italo Calvino
Saying
Book
Finished
Say
Classic
Never
Although I am small, ugly and dirty, I am highly ambitious, and at the slightest flattery, I immediately start to strut like a turkey.
Italo Calvino
Ugly
Slightest
Immediately
Small
Strut
Dirty
Highly
Like
Although
Am
Ambitious
Flattery
Turkey
Start
Classics are books which, the more we think we know them through hearsay, the more original, unexpected, and innovative we find them when we actually read them.
Italo Calvino
Think
Innovative
Books
Find
Classics
More
Through
Know
Read
Hearsay
Unexpected
Which
Them
Original
Actually
A classic is a work which persists as a background noise even when a present that is totally incompatible with it holds sway.
Italo Calvino
Work
Noise
Background
Classic
Totally
Persists
Holds
Which
Sway
Even
Incompatible
Present
The public figure of the writer, the writer-character, the 'personality-cult' of the author, are all becoming for me more and more intolerable in others, and consequently in myself.
Italo Calvino
Myself
Me
Others
Intolerable
More
More And More
Writer
Becoming
Author
Public
Public Figure
Figure
Consequently
One writes fables in periods of oppression.
Italo Calvino
Oppression
Fables
Writes
Periods
How much energy is wasted in Italy in trying to write the novel that obeys all the rules. The energy might have been useful to provide us with more modest, more genuine things, that had less pretensions: short stories, memoirs, notes, testimonials, or at any rate, books that are open, without a preconceived plan.
Italo Calvino
Energy
Books
Rules
Memoirs
Rate
More
Write
Open
Had
Without
Genuine
How
How Much
Testimonial
Been
Provide
Italy
Trying
Any
Preconceived
Short
Stories
Short Stories
Might
Modest
Notes
Plan
Us
Much
Useful
Less
Novel
Wasted
Things
The catalogue of forms is endless: until every shape has found its city, new cities will continue to be born. When the forms exhaust their variety and come apart, the end of cities begins.
Italo Calvino
Will
Every
Cities
City
Born
Variety
Shape
Catalogue
New
Come
Until
Exhaust
Continue
End
Begins
Endless
Apart
Forms
Found
Traveling, you realize that differences are lost: each city takes to resembling all cities, places exchange their form, order, distances, a shapeless dust cloud invades the continents.
Italo Calvino
You
Travel
Lost
Dust
Differences
Cloud
Distances
Cities
City
Exchange
Takes
Continents
Order
Form
Places
Realize
Resembling
Each
Traveling
The satirist is prevented by repulsion from gaining a better knowledge of the world he is attracted to, yet he is forced by attraction to concern himself with the world that repels him.
Italo Calvino
Knowledge
World
Better
He
Attracted
Attraction
Concern
Forced
Him
Himself
Gaining
Repulsion
Satirist
I detest this contemporary trend to destroy the traditional hierarchy of genres.
Italo Calvino
Trend
Destroy
Hierarchy
Detest
Contemporary
Genres
Traditional
I'm afraid I don't think I really have a life on which something can be written.
Italo Calvino
Life
Think
Something
Written
Afraid
Which
Really
I think today that politics registers very late things which society manifests through other channels, and I feel that often politics distorts and mystifies reality.
Italo Calvino
Today
Politics
Reality
Think
Society
Other
Late
Channels
Through
Feel
Very
Often
Which
Things
Turin is a city which entices a writer towards vigor, linearity, style. It encourages logic, and through logic it opens the way towards madness.
Italo Calvino
Madness
Style
Way
City
Logic
Through
Writer
Towards
Opens
Encourages
Which
Vigor
My stories are full of facts; they have a beginning and an end. For that reason, they will never... occupy a place in contemporary literature.
Italo Calvino
Will
Beginning
Facts
Never
Contemporary
Occupy
End
Stories
Literature
Place
Full
Reason
Man is simply the best chance we know of that matter has had of providing itself with information about itself.
Italo Calvino
Best
Man
Matter
About
Had
Simply
Know
Providing
Itself
Information
Chance
I change my method and field of reference from book to book because I can never believe in the same thing two times running.
Italo Calvino
Change
Book
Same Thing
Field
Believe
Running
Never
Because
Method
Reference
Times
Same
Thing
Two
What is modern art but the attempt to pinpoint vague, incorporeal, inexpressible sensations? What is modern art, I would add, but the most solemn pile of nonsense that ever appeared on Earth?
Italo Calvino
Art
Add
Earth
Solemn
Would
Attempt
Most
Pile
Nonsense
Inexpressible
Pinpoint
Modern
Modern Art
Sensations
Appeared
Ever
Vague
When I'm writing a book, I prefer not to speak about it, because only when the book is finished can I try to understand what I've really done and to compare my intentions with the result.
Italo Calvino
Book
Writing
Speak
Result
Try
Finished
About
Only
Because
Understand
Done
Intentions
Prefer
Really
Compare
I was born in Cuba, and my parents were tropical agronomists.
Italo Calvino
Parents
Born
Tropical
Cuba
Were
A tale is born from an image, and the image extends and creates a network of meanings that are always equivocal.
Italo Calvino
Born
Network
Tale
Always
Creates
Meanings
Image
New York is a fabled city, a fabulous city.
Italo Calvino
City
Fabulous
New
York
New York
I spend 12 hours a day reading on most days of the year.
Italo Calvino
Day
Reading
Year
Spend
Days
Hours
Most
I have never loved any writer as much as Hemingway.
Italo Calvino
Writer
Never
Any
Loved
Much
Hemingway
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