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Quote by André Aciman

“You can always talk to me. I was your age once, my father used to say. The things you feel and think only you have felt, believe me, I've lived and suffered through all of them, and more than once -some I've never gotten over and others I'm as ignorant about as you are today, yet I know almost every bend, every tollbooth, every chamber in the human heart.”

Quote by André Aciman

Book:Call Me by Your Name
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Call Me by Your Name

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Author

André Aciman

André Aciman, born on January 2, 1951, is a renowned writer known for his profound psychological insights and unique narrative style. His works, such as 'The Museum of Unconditional Love,' are celebrated for their emotional depth and distinctive storytelling. more

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“The island of Sicily is the largest in the Mediterranean. It has also proved, over the centuries, to be the most unhappy. The stepping-stone between Europe and Africa, the gateway between the East and the West, the link between the Latin world and the Greek, at once a stronghold, observation-point and clearing-house, it has been fought over and occupied in turn by all the great powers that have at various times striven to extend their dominion across the Middle Sea. It has belonged to them all—and yet has properly been part of none; for the number and variety of its conquerors, while preventing the development of any strong national individuality of its own, have endowed it with a kaleidoscopic heritage of experience which can never allow it to become completely assimilated. Even today, despite the beauty of its landscape, the fertility of its fields and the perpetual benediction of its climate, there lingers everywhere some dark, brooding quality—some underlying sorrow of which poverty, Church influence, the Mafia and all the other popular modern scapegoats may be the manifestations but are certainly not the cause. It is the sorrow of long, unhappy experience, of opportunity lost and promise unfulfilled; the sorrow, perhaps, of a beautiful woman who has been raped too often and betrayed too often and is no longer fit for love or marriage. Phoenicians, Greeks, Carthaginians, Romans, Goths, Byzantines, Arabs, Normans, Germans, Spaniards, French—all have left their mark. Today, a century after being received into her Italian home, Sicily is probably less unhappy than she has been for many centuries; but though no longer lost she still seems lonely, seeking always an identity which she can never entirely find.”

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“Costanza non capiva sino in fondo, ma non poneva domande, tanto le piacevano quelle passeggiate in carrozza, seduta orgogliosa accanto al fratello maggiore, su e giù per il lungomare. Da un lato c'erano i grandi palazzi nobiliari con le loro terrazze lussureggianti. Sul marciapiede gremito di gente benvestita per la passeggiata si aprivano i caffè della Marina, davanti ai quali si fermavano le carrozze per il gelato. La strada costeggiava il mare limpido, tranquillo, su cui si rifletteva a occidente, magnifico, il lare protettore: Monte Pellegrino. I camerieri li servivano in carrozza. Si facevano strada in mezzo ai clienti seduti ai tavolini e alla gente che passeggiava davanti a loro tenendo in bilico sul braccio teso in alto, sulle teste dei passanti, grandi vassoi rotondi con sopra bicchieri d'acqua e coppette di metallo argentato piene di gelato rasato al bordo. Su ognuna era infilzato un biscotto tubolare, croccante. Costanza era golosa: assaporava con voluttà persino l'acqua dolce e rinfrescante, che sorbiva a piccoli sorsi dopo il gelato.”

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“Ma gli altri, tutti quegli altri ragazzi a cui il «miracolo» di Anastasi ha dato un simbolo, un barlume di speranza, un anelito nuovo? Potranno almeno sperare di tenergli dietro e di vincere la vita, non sulle sole vie dello sport? Saremo un giorno anche noi come gli altri, in una società più civile, più larga di stimoli e di possibilità? Se un giorno lo saremo, se ogni piccolo siciliano potrà partire sulla stessa linea del suo fratello di Milano o di Verona, e non sembrerà più un miracolo che riesca, vorrà dire che avremo inteso sino in fondo che cosa vale e che cosa significa la favola dolce-amara del ragazzo che se ne andò dalla sua modesta casetta e fece tremare l'Olimpico. – dalla prefazione di Luigi Prestinenza, "Brividi all'Olimpico”

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