“Having exhausted every possibility at the moment when he was coming full circle, Antonino realised that photographing photographs was the only course that he had left - or, rather, the true course he had obscurely been seeking all this time. (Last line of the story The Adventure of a Photographer )” MomentsStoriesLastsCoursesLeftLinesPossibilityAdventurePhotographerPhotographSeekingCirclesExhaustedRealisedFull Circle Author:Italo Calvino
“Your first book is the only one that matters. Perhaps a writer should write only that one. That is the one moment when you make the big leap; the opportunity to express yourself is offered that once, and you untie the knot within you then or never again.” ShouldWritingFirstsBookMatterMomentsBigsOpportunityLeapWithin YouExpress YourselfKnots Book:The Path to the Nest of Spiders Source: The Path to the Nest of Spiders
“This is what I mean when I say I would like to swim against the stream of time: I would like to erase the consequences of certain events and restore an initial condition. But every moment of my life brings with it an accumulation of new facts, and each of these new facts bring with it consequences; so the more I seek to return to the zero moment from which I set out, the further I move away from it. . . .” MeanMomentsFactsMovingCertainConditionsEventsReturnConsequenceStreamsSwimZeroInitialsAccumulationErase Book:If On A Winter's Night A Traveller Source: If On A Winter's Night A Traveller
“To fly is the opposite of traveling: you cross a gap in space, you vanish into the void, you accept not being in a place for a duration that is itself a kind of void in time; then you reappear, in a place and in a moment with no relation to the where and when in which you vanished.” KindMomentsSpaceAcceptingCrossesOppositesRelationGapsVoidDuration Author:Italo Calvino
“The people who move through the streets are all strangers. At each encounter, they imagine a thousand things about one another; meetings which could take place between them, conversations, surprises, caresses, bites. But no one greets anyone; eyes lock for a second, then dart away, seeking other eyes, never stopping...something runs among them, an exchange of glances like lines that connect one figure with another and draw arrows, stars, triangles, until all combinations are used up in a moment, and other characters come on to the scene.” PeopleMomentsCharacterEyeRunningMovingUsedStarsLinesImagineStreetsFiguresSceneThousandConversationDrawsMeetingsSurpriseSeekingStrangerCombinationEncountersBitesLocksStoppingGlancesArrowsCaressTrianglesNever Stopping Author:Italo Calvino
“Yet, even now, ever time (often) that I find that I don't understand something, then instinctively, I'm filled with the hope that perhaps this will be my moment again, perhaps once again I shall understand nothing, I shall grasp that other knowledge, found and lost in an instant.” MomentsFoundLostFilledInstant Book:Numbers in the Dark Source: Numbers in the Dark
“So began their love, the boy happy and amazed, she happy and not surprised at all (nothing happens by chance to girls). It was the love so long awaited by Cosimo and which had now inexplicably arrived, and so lovely that he could not imagine how he had even thought it lovely before. And the thing newest to him was that it was so simple, and the boy at that moment thought it must be like that always.” LongMomentsHappensGirlChanceSimpleBoysImagineLovelyThat MomentAmazed Author:Italo Calvino
“You reach a moment in life when, among the people you have known, the dead outnumber the living. And the mind refuses to accept more faces, more expressions: on every new face you encounter, it prints the old forms, for each one it finds the most suitable mask.” PeopleMindMomentsFacesFormKnownAcceptingExpressionRefuseEncountersMaskPrintSuitableNew Faces Book:Invisible Cities Source: Invisible Cities
“Perhaps everything lies in knowing what words to speak, what actions to perform, and in what order and rhythm; or else someone's gaze, answer, gesture is enough; it is enough for someone to do something for the sheer pleasure of doing it, and for his pleasure to become the pleasure of others: at that moment, all spaces change, all heights, distances; the city is transfigured, becomes crystalline, transparent as a dragonfly.” EnoughMomentsActionLyingOrderSpeakSpaceAnswersPleasureCitiesKnowingDistanceRhythmHeightThat MomentGesturesSheerTransparentDragonflies Author:Italo Calvino
“Nobody looks at the moon in the afternoon, and this is the moment when it would most require our attention, since its existence is still in doubt.” LooksStillsMomentsExistenceAttentionDoubtMoonAfternoon Book:Mr. Palomar Source: Mr. Palomar
“The minute you start saying something, 'Ah, how beautiful! We must photograph it!' you are already close to view of the person who thinks that everything that is not photographed is lost, as if it had never existed, and that therefore, in order really to live, you must photograph as much as you can, and to photograph as much as you can you must either live in the most photographable way possible, or else consider photographable every moment of your life. The first course leads to stupidity; the second to madness.” IfsThinkingWayFirstsPersonsMomentsBeautifulOrderCoursesLostViewsMinutesDesignMadnessPhotographStupidityGraphicGraphic Design Author:Italo Calvino
