Quotessence
Home / Quotes / Quote by Elena Ferrante

Quote by Elena Ferrante

“Literary truth is not the truth of the biographer or the reporter, it’s not a police report or a sentence handed down by a court. It’s not even the plausibility of a well-constructed narrative. Literary truth is entirely a matter of wording and is directly proportional to the energy that one is able to ­impress on the sentence. And when it works, there is no stereotype or cliché of popular literature that resists it. It reanimates, revives, subjects ­everything to its needs.”

Quote by Elena Ferrante

Create image

Author

Elena Ferrante
Elena Ferrante

Elena Ferrante is a renowned contemporary Italian novelist, known for her unique narrative style and profound character portrayals. Her works cover a wide range of themes, including family, love, power, and social class. Ferrante's novels have received widespread acclaim both in Italy and around the world, despite the mystery surrounding her true identity. more

You May Also Like

“She has a quiet paroxysm. Now remember that these are the days before digital pornography. There is no cliché of how women are supposed to orgasm, no idea in their heads of how they are supposed to sound when they climax. Mrs. Daldry’s first orgasms could be very quiet, organic, awkward, primal. Or very clinical. Or embarrassingly natural. But whatever it is, it should not be a cliché, a camp version of how we expect all women sound when they orgasm. It is simply clear that she has had some kind of release.”

PornographyOrgasmClichéParoxysm
Book:In the Next Room, or the Vibrator Play
Create image

“Deeply exciting, though, cliché was, as a concept. It was truth misted by overexpression, wasn't it, like a structure seen in a fog, something waiting to be re-felt, re-seen. Something dainty fumbled at through thick gloves. Cliché was true, obviously, which was why it had become cliché in the first place; so true that cliché actually protected you from its own truth by being what it was, nothing but cliché.”

TruthClichéOuroboros
Book:The Accidental
Create image

“...and I know it’s not terribly original, it’s nothing earth-shattering, I know it’s all been said a thousand times, but that may be true of everything in life that really matters, and anyhow, just because something isn’t original doesn’t mean it isn’t true, in fact maybe that’s how the truth usually is – monotonous, boring, not original at all.”

TruthOriginalityCliché
Book:Το καλό θα 'ρθει από τη θάλασσα
Create image