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.
book books-and-reading breaks reading rip start storm traffic waiting wheel
You are at the wheel of your car, waiting at a traffic light, you take the book out of the bag, rip off the transparent wrapping, start reading the first lines. A storm of honking breaks over you....
books genuine italy less might novel provide trying useful wasted
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.
creates network tale
A tale is born from an image, and the image extends and creates a network of meanings that are always equivocal.
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.
background holds noise persists totally work
A classic is a work which persists as a background noise even when a present that is totally incompatible with it holds sway.
cities people stories
I have tried to remove weight, sometimes from people, sometimes from heavenly bodies, sometimes from cities; above all I have tried to remove weight from the structure of stories and from language.