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Italo Calvino

Italo Calvino Quotes

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Famous Italo Calvino Quotes

“My working method has more often than not involved the subtraction of weight. I have tried to remove weight, sometimes from people, sometimes from heavenly bodies, sometimes from cities; above all I have tried to remove weight from the structure of stories and from language. . . . Maybe I was only then becoming aware of the weight, the inertia, the opacity of the world--qualities that stick to the writing from the start, unless one finds some way of evading them.”

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Author:Italo Calvino
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“Whenever humanity seems condemned to heaviness, I think I should fly like Perseus into a different space. I don't mean escaping into dreams or into the irrational. I mean that I have to change my approach, look at the world from a different perspective, with a different logic and with fresh methods of cognition and verification.”

ThinkingWorldShouldBelieveLooksMeanDifferentDreamSeemsHumanityI BelieveSpaceCryPerspectiveBattleApproachLogicMethodIrrationalEscapingCognitionDifferent PerspectiveWholeheartedlyHeavinessVerificationBattle CryPerseus
Author:Italo Calvino
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“You are about to begin reading Italo Calvino's new novel, If on a winter's night a traveler. Relax. Concentrate. Dispel every other thought. Let the world around you fade. Best to close the door; the TV is always on in the next room. Tell the others right away, "No, I don't want to watch TV!" Raise your voice -- they won't hear you otherwise -- "I'm reading! I don't want to be disturbed!" Maybe they haven't heard you, with all that racket; speak louder, yell: "I'm beginning to read Italo Calvino's new novel!" Or if you prefer, don't say anything: just hope they'll leave you alone.”

IfsWorldWantNightReadingNextSpeakVoiceRoomsWatchesNovelDoorsHeardHavensTvsRaisesWinterRelaxFadesTravelerSay AnythingDisturbedRacketRaise Your Voice
Book:If On A Winter's Night A Traveller
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“Your house, being the place in which you read, can tell us the position books occupy in your life, if they are a defense you set up to keep the outside world at a distance, if they area dream into which you sink as if into a drug, or bridges you cast toward the outside, toward the world that interests you so much that you want to multiply and extend its dimensions through books.”

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Author:Italo Calvino
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“Something must always remain that eludes us ... For power to have an object on which it can be exercised, a space in which to stretch out its arms ... As long as I know there exists in the world someone who does tricks only for the love of the trick, as long as I know there is a woman who loves reading for reading's sake, I can convince myself that the world continues ... And every evening I, too, abandon myself to reading, like that distant unknown woman.”

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Author:Italo Calvino
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“It was the hour in which objects lose the consistency of shadow that accompanies them during the night and gradually reacquire colors, but seem to cross meanwhile an uncertain limbo, faintly touched, just breathed on by light; the hour in which one is least certain of the world's existence.”

WorldLightSeemsNightCertainHoursLosesExistenceMorningObjectsColorShadowCrossesTouchedUncertainConsistencyAccompanyLimbo
Book:The Nonexistent Knight
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“The contradiction [trying to use Russian model to reshape Italy] grew to such an extent that I felt totally cut off from the communist world and, in the end, from politics. That was fortunate. The idea of putting literature in second place, after politics, is an enormous mistake, because politics almost never achieves its ideals.”

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Author:Italo Calvino
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