Quotessence
Home / Authors / Paolo Giordano Books
Paolo Giordano

Paolo Giordano Books

Writer

Related Quotes

“They weren't smiling and were looking in opposite directions, but it was as if their bodies flowed smoothly into each other's, through their arms and fingers. . . . There was a shared space between their bodies, the confines of which were not well delineated, from which nothing seemed to be missing and in which the air seemed motionless, undisturbed.”

LoveRelationshipsPiecesAcceptanceConnectednessFitting In
Book:The Solitude of Prime Numbers
Create image

“Prime numbers are divisible only by 1 and by themselves. They hold their place in the infinite series of natural numbers, squashed, like all numbers, between two others, but one step further than the rest. They are suspicious, solitary numbers, which is why Mattia thought they were wonderful. Sometimes he thought that they had ended up in that sequence by mistake, that they'd been trapped, like pearls strung on a necklace. Other times he suspected that they too would have preferred to be like all others, just ordinary numbers, but for some reason they couldn't do it. This second thought struck him mostly at night, in the chaotic interweaving of images that comes before sleep, when the mind is too weak to tell itself lies.”

NumbersSolitudeConformityLonliness
Book:The Solitude of Prime Numbers
Create image

“Матия нарочно беше толкова тих в движенията си. Знаеше, че безпорядъкът в света не може да не се увеличава, че фоновият шум ще нараства, докато не покрие всеки ясен сигнал. Бе убеден обаче, че ако преценява правилно жестовете си, ще има по-малко вина за тази разруха.”

So Me
Book:The Solitude of Prime Numbers
Create image

“She emptied herself of Fabio and of herself, of all the useless efforts she had made to get where she was and find nothing there. With detached curiosity she observed the rebirth of her weaknesses, her obsessions. This time she would let them decide, since she hadn't been able to do anything anyway. Against certain parts of yourself you remain powerless, she said to herself, as she regressed pleasurably to the time when she was a girl.”

MadeSaidAbleCertainGirlEffortWeaknessCuriosityObsessionUselessPowerlessRebirthDetached
Author:Paolo Giordano
Create image

“Mattia was right: the days had slipped over her skin like a solvent, one after the other, each removing a very thin layer of pigment from her tattoo, and from both of their memories. The outlines, like the circumstances, were still there, black and well delineated, but the colors had merged together until they faded into a dull, uniform tonality, a neutral absence of meaning.”

WellsStillsTogetherBlackMemoriesColorCircumstancesSkinsAbsenceDullLayersUniformsTattooOutlinesFadedPigment
Author:Paolo Giordano
Create image

“Twin primes: pairs of prime numbers that are close to each other, almost neighbors, but between them there is always an even number that prevents them from truly touching. If you go on counting, you discover that these pairs gradually become rarer, lost in that silent, measured space made only of ciphers. You develop a distressing presentiment that the pairs encountered up until that point were accidental, that solitude is the true destiny. Then, just when you’re about to surrender, you come across another pair of twins, clutching each other tightly.”

IfsMadeLostSpaceNumbersDestinyGoes OnSolitudeSilentNeighborSurrenderPairsPrimeTouchingTwinsCountingDistressingCiphersPrime Numbers
Author:Paolo Giordano
Create image

“Do you really like studying?" Mattia nodded. "Why?" "It's the only thing I know how to do," he said shortly. He wanted to tell her that he liked studying because you can do it alone, because all the things you study are already dead, cold, and chewed over. He wanted to tell her that the pages of the schoolbooks were all the same temperature, that they left you time to choose, that they never hurt you and you couldn't hurt them either. But he said nothing.”

KnowsSaidWantedLeftCan DoHurtKnow HowStudyColdPagesYou Can Do ItTemperature
Author:Paolo Giordano
Create image