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.
certain collective convinced order solve work
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.
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.
came character close fiction happening inside inspired invented science solar sort subjects universe witness
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.
moves politics
Politics is marginal, but literature moves along by indirection.
full occupy stories
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.
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.
central education work
My university work was not central to my education.
certain writings
For the critic, the author does not exist; only a certain number of writings exist.
biting licking writers
Writers divide into those who write biting their nails and those who don't. Some writers write licking their finger.
drawer sonnets unfinished
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.
himself liberate pieces writer
The writer is someone who tears himself to pieces in order to liberate his neighbor.
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.