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" My university work was not central to my education. "
Italo Calvino
University
Work
Education
Related Quotes:
" I change my method and field of reference from book to book because I can never believe in the same thing two times running. "
Italo Calvino
Two
Never
Believe
" 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
" 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
" My stories are full of facts; they have a beginning and an end. For that reason, they will never... occupy a place in contemporary literature. "
Italo Calvino
Beginning
End
Place
" 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
" In love, as in gluttony, pleasure is a matter of the utmost precision. "
Italo Calvino
Matter
Precision
Love
" A human being becomes human not through the casual convergence of certain biological conditions, but through an act of will and love on the part of other people. "
Italo Calvino
People
Human Being
Casual
" One writes fables in periods of oppression. "
Italo Calvino
Writes
Fables
Oppression
" 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
You
Answers
Always
" Good literature can be created only with something that is different from literature. "
Italo Calvino
Different
Only
Literature
" The more enlightened our houses are, the more their walls ooze ghosts. "
Italo Calvino
More
Our
Walls
" 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
" 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
" It is not the voice that commands the story; it is the ear. "
Italo Calvino
Ear
Voice
Story
" I'm a Communist, fully convinced and dedicated to my cause. "
Italo Calvino
Convinced
Dedicated
Communist
" The Classics are those books which constitute a treasured experience for those who have read and loved them; but they remain just as rich an experience for those who reserve the chance to read them for when they are in the best condition to enjoy them. "
Italo Calvino
Loved
Experience
Chance
" A classic is a book that has never finished saying what it has to say. "
Italo Calvino
Say
Classic
Book
" I was born in Cuba, and my parents were tropical agronomists. "
Italo Calvino
Parents
Born
Cuba
" 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
" What Romantic terminology called genius or talent or inspiration is nothing other than finding the right road empirically, following one's nose, taking shortcuts. "
Italo Calvino
Road
Romantic
Talent
" 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
" The writer is someone who tears himself to pieces in order to liberate his neighbor. "
Italo Calvino
Tears
Writer
Order
" I write... sonnets... and writing sonnets is boring. You have to find rhymes; you have to write hendecasyllables; so after a while, I get bored and my drawer is overflowing with unfinished short poems. "
Italo Calvino
Find
You
Writing
" What is modern art but the attempt to pinpoint vague, incorporeal, inexpressible sensations? What is modern art, I would add, but the most solemn pile of nonsense that ever appeared on Earth? "
Italo Calvino
Art
Modern Art
Modern
" Thoughtful lightness can make frivolity seem dull and heavy. "
Italo Calvino
Thoughtful
Heavy
Make
" 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
Much
Like
Head
" 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
" I detest this contemporary trend to destroy the traditional hierarchy of genres. "
Italo Calvino
Destroy
Genres
Hierarchy
" In 'Cosmicomics,' I came close to science fiction - I was inspired by cosmological subjects and the workings of the universe and invented a character who was a sort of witness to everything that was happening inside the solar system. "
Italo Calvino
Universe
Character
Science
" Man is simply the best chance we know of that matter has had of providing itself with information about itself. "
Italo Calvino
Know
Man
Best