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" I do not have any political commitments anymore. I'm politically a total agnostic; I'm one of the few writers in Italy who refuses to be identified with a specific political party. "
Italo Calvino
Political
Political Party
Party
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" I feel so at home in New York that I don't have the urge to write about it. "
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" Rarely does an interviewer ask questions you did not expect. I have given a lot of interviews, and I have concluded that the questions always look alike. I could always give the same answers. "
Italo Calvino
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" I would very much like to be one of those writers who have something really clear in their head to say, and throughout their life they promote this idea in their works. "
Italo Calvino
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" Sometimes I try to concentrate on the story I would like to write, and I realize that what interests me is something else entirely, or, rather, not anything precise but everything that does not fit in what I ought to write. "
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" Nature in America does not arouse powerful emotions in me. "
Italo Calvino
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" I do not understand how you can associate abortion with an idea of hedonism or the good life. "
Italo Calvino
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" I think today that politics registers very late things which society manifests through other channels, and I feel that often politics distorts and mystifies reality. "
Italo Calvino
Think
Society
Today
" I detest this contemporary trend to destroy the traditional hierarchy of genres. "
Italo Calvino
Destroy
Genres
Hierarchy
" It is not the voice that commands the story; it is the ear. "
Italo Calvino
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Story
" How much energy is wasted in Italy in trying to write the novel that obeys all the rules. The energy might have been useful to provide us with more modest, more genuine things, that had less pretensions: short stories, memoirs, notes, testimonials, or at any rate, books that are open, without a preconceived plan. "
Italo Calvino
Rules
Trying
Short
" Writers divide into those who write biting their nails and those who don't. Some writers write licking their finger. "
Italo Calvino
Write
Divide
Finger
" A classic is a book which with each rereading offers as much of a sense of discovery as the first reading. "
Italo Calvino
Book
Sense
Reading
" I write by hand, making many, many corrections. I would say I cross out more than I write. I have to hunt for words when I speak, and I have the same difficulty when writing. "
Italo Calvino
Hand
Writing
Words
" Traveling, you realize that differences are lost: each city takes to resembling all cities, places exchange their form, order, distances, a shapeless dust cloud invades the continents. "
Italo Calvino
You
City
Differences
" When I'm writing a book, I prefer not to speak about it, because only when the book is finished can I try to understand what I've really done and to compare my intentions with the result. "
Italo Calvino
Book
Done
Result
" Now you mustn't think that I don't have any ideas for novels in my head. I've got ideas for ten novels in my head. But with every idea I have, I already foresee the wrong novels I would write, because I also have critical ideas in my head; I've got a full theory of the perfect novel, and that's what stumps me. "
Italo Calvino
Now
Think
Perfect
" I am more and more convinced that literature is made up of works, genres, schools, discussions, problems, collective work in order to solve certain problems. "
Italo Calvino
I Am
Literature
Work
" Without translation, I would be limited to the borders of my own country. The translator is my most important ally. He introduces me to the world. "
Italo Calvino
World
My Own
Me
" The more enlightened our houses are, the more their walls ooze ghosts. "
Italo Calvino
More
Our
Walls
" The satirist is prevented by repulsion from gaining a better knowledge of the world he is attracted to, yet he is forced by attraction to concern himself with the world that repels him. "
Italo Calvino
Knowledge
World
Better
" A tale is born from an image, and the image extends and creates a network of meanings that are always equivocal. "
Italo Calvino
Always
Image
Born
" A classic is a book that has never finished saying what it has to say. "
Italo Calvino
Say
Classic
Book
" Bringing a child into the world makes sense only if this child is wanted consciously and freely by its two parents. If it is not, then it is simply animal and criminal behavior. "
Italo Calvino
Parents
Behavior
Animal
" I don't believe chance can play a role in my literature. "
Italo Calvino
Role
Play
Literature
" A classic is a work which persists as a background noise even when a present that is totally incompatible with it holds sway. "
Italo Calvino
Noise
Present
Work
" One writes fables in periods of oppression. "
Italo Calvino
Writes
Fables
Oppression
" I'm a Communist, fully convinced and dedicated to my cause. "
Italo Calvino
Convinced
Dedicated
Communist
" Thoughtful lightness can make frivolity seem dull and heavy. "
Italo Calvino
Thoughtful
Heavy
Make
" If the reader looks, I think he will find plenty of moral and political ideas in my stories. "
Italo Calvino
Moral
Think
Political
" My university work was not central to my education. "
Italo Calvino
University
Work
Education