Italo Calvino
Italo Calvino
Italo Calvinowas an Italian journalist and writer of short stories and novels. His best known works include the Our Ancestors trilogy, the Cosmicomics collection of short stories, and the novels Invisible Citiesand If on a winter's night a traveler...
NationalityItalian
ProfessionJournalist
Date of Birth15 October 1923
CountryItaly
late politics society
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.
bringing child criminal freely simply
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.
associate good life understand
I do not understand how you can associate abortion with an idea of hedonism or the good life.
destroy detest hierarchy trend
I detest this contemporary trend to destroy the traditional hierarchy of genres.
certain writings
For the critic, the author does not exist; only a certain number of writings exist.
excellent followed freud great thrillers writer
I read Freud because I find him an excellent writer... a writer of police thrillers that can be followed with great passion.
tropical
I was born in Cuba, and my parents were tropical agronomists.
plenty reader
If the reader looks, I think he will find plenty of moral and political ideas in my stories.
encourages logic opens towards writer
Turin is a city which entices a writer towards vigor, linearity, style. It encourages logic, and through logic it opens the way towards madness.
moments lost found
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 will be my moment again, perhaps once again I shall understand nothing, I shall grasp that other knowledge, found and lost in an instant.
mistake cutting ideas
The contradiction [trying to use Russian model to reshape Italy] grew to such an extent that I felt totally cut off from the communist world and, in the end, from politics. That was fortunate. The idea of putting literature in second place, after politics, is an enormous mistake, because politics almost never achieves its ideals.
venture surface knows
It is only after you have come to know the surface of things ... that you can venture to seek what is underneath. But the surface of things is inexhaustible.
although highly slightest strut
Although I am small, ugly and dirty, I am highly ambitious, and at the slightest flattery, I immediately start to strut like a turkey.
dull frivolity lightness
Thoughtful lightness can make frivolity seem dull and heavy.