A classic is a book that has never finished saying what it has to say. — Italo Calvino Copy Share Image
“You're the absolute protagonist of this book, very well; but do you believe that gives you the right to have carnal relations… — Italo Calvino Copy Share Image
“Who ever said this author had an unmistakable tone? On the contrary, he is known as an author who changes greatly from… — Italo Calvino Copy Share Image
“For years I have been coming to this library, and I explore it volume by volume, shelf by shelf, but I could… — Italo Calvino Copy Share Image
I change my method and field of reference from book to book because I can never believe in the same thing two… — Italo Calvino Copy Share Image
Who are we, who is each one of us, if not a combinatoria of experiences, information, books we have read, things imagined? — Italo Calvino Copy Share Image
Every new book I read comes to be a part of that overall and unitary book that is the sum of my… — Italo Calvino Copy Share Image
“Perhaps nothing escapes this fate but the liveliness and nimbleness of the mind—the very qualities with which the novel is written, qualities… — Italo Calvino Copy Share Image
Classics are books which, the more we think we know them through hearsay, the more original, unexpected, and innovative we find them… — Italo Calvino Copy Share Image
You have with you the book you were reading in the cafe, which you are eager to continue, so that you can… — Italo Calvino Copy Share Image
“Do you want to demonstrate that the living also have a wordless language, with which books cannot be written but which can… — Italo Calvino Copy Share Image
“You cast another bewildered look at the books around you (or, rather: it was the books that looked at you, with the… — Italo Calvino Copy Share Image
“All that can be done is for each of us to invent our own ideal library of our classics; and I would… — Italo Calvino Copy Share Image
There is nothing for it but for all of us to invent our own ideal libraries of classics. I would say that… — Italo Calvino Copy Share Image
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… — Italo Calvino Copy Share Image
“Long novels written today are perhaps a contradiction: the dimension of time has been shattered, we cannot love or think except in… — Italo Calvino Copy Share Image
Whether there is such a thing as Reality, of which the various levels are only partial aspects, or whether there are only… — Italo Calvino Copy Share Image
“In the shop window you have promptly identified the cover with the title you were looking for. Following this visual trail, you… — Italo Calvino Copy Share Image
“What is more natural than that a solidity, a complicity, a bond should be established between Reader and Reader, thanks to the… — Italo Calvino Copy Share Image
“Don't be amazed if you see my eyes always wandering. In fact, this is my way of reading, and it is only… — Italo Calvino Copy Share Image
“The novel begins in a railway station, a locomotive huffs, steam from a piston covers the opening of the chapter, a cloud… — Italo Calvino Copy Share Image
Everything has already begun before, the first line of the first page of every novel refers to something that has already happened… — Italo Calvino Copy Share Image
The novels that attract me most... are those that create an illusion of transperancy around a knot of human relationships as obscure,… — Italo Calvino Copy Share Image
“How can you keep up with her, this woman who is always reading another book besides the one before her eyes, a… — Italo Calvino Copy Share Image
It's better not to know authors personally, because the real person never corresponds to the image you form of him from reading… — Italo Calvino Copy Share Image
“The moment that counts most for me is the one that precedes reading. At times a title is enough to kindle in… — Italo Calvino Copy Share Image
“Your case gives me new hope," I said to him. "With me, more and more often I happen to pick up a… — Italo Calvino Copy Share Image
When politicians and politically minded people pay too much attention to literature, it is a bad sign - a bad sign mostly… — Italo Calvino Copy Share Image
My confidence in the future of literature consists in the knowledge that there are things that only literature can give us, by… — Italo Calvino Copy Share Image
When I'm writing a book, I prefer not to speak about it, because only when the book is finished can I try… — Italo Calvino Copy Share Image
A classic is the term given to any book which comes to represent the whole universe, a book on a par with… — Italo Calvino Copy Share Image
“It’s not that you expect anything in particular from this particular book. You’re the sort of person who, on principle, no longer… — Italo Calvino Copy Share Image
How much energy is wasted in Italy in trying to write the novel that obeys all the rules. The energy might have… — Italo Calvino Copy Share Image
The book I'm looking for,' says the blurred figure, who holds out a volume similar to yours, 'is the one that gives… — Italo Calvino Copy Share Image
“Instead of making myself write the book I ought to write, the novel that was expected of me, I conjured up the… — Italo Calvino Copy Share Image
“The moment that counts most for me is the moment that precedes reading. At times a title is enough to kindle in… — Italo Calvino Copy Share Image
“In the infinite universe of literature there are always other avenues to explore, some brand-new and some exceedingly ancient, styles and forms… — Italo Calvino Copy Share Image
What about books? Well, precisely because you have denied it in every other field, you believe you may still grant yourself legitimately… — Italo Calvino Copy Share Image
“(one would say yes, if not every day, at least fairly regularly), whether only for yourself or also for others (often only for yourself,… — Italo Calvino Copy Share
“The Great Khan tried to concentrate on the game: but now it was the game’s reason that eluded him. The end of every game… — Italo Calvino Copy Share
“Or else you can say, like the camel driver who took me there: "I arrived here in my first youth, one morning, many people… — Italo Calvino Copy Share
“The naked man had lost hope now; he would never be able to return to the earth's surface;he would never leave the bottom of… — Italo Calvino Copy Share
“The art of writing tales consists in an ability to draw the rest of life from the little one has understood of it; but… — Italo Calvino Copy Share
“I ask you to come down to earth," said the Baron in a calm, rather faint voice, "and to take up the duties of… — Italo Calvino Copy Share
The unconscious is the ocean of the unsayable, of what has been expelled from the land of language, removed as a result of ancient… — Italo Calvino Copy Share
“... KUBLAI: We have proved that if we were here, we would not be. POLO: And here, in fact, we are.” — Italo Calvino Copy Share
“And yet, in Raissa, at every moment there is a child in a window who laughs seeing a dog that has jumped on a… — Italo Calvino Copy Share
“Ludmilla, now you are being read. Your body is being subjected to a systematic reading, through channels of tactile information, visual, olfactory, and not… — Italo Calvino Copy Share
“Once the process of falsification is set in motion, it won't stop. We're in a country where everything that can be falsified has been… — Italo Calvino Copy Share
“Your case gives me new hope," I said to him. "With me, more and more often I happen to pick up a novel that… — Italo Calvino Copy Share
We could say, then, that man is an instrument the world employs to renew its own image constantly. — Italo Calvino Copy Share
“Perhaps it is this story that is a bridge over the void, and as it advances it flings forward news and sensations and emotions… — Italo Calvino Copy Share
Yet, even now, ever time (often) that I find that I don't understand something, then instinctively, I'm filled with the hope that perhaps this… — Italo Calvino Copy Share
