“Putting literature in second place, after politics, is an enormous mistake, because politics almost never achieves its ideals.”

—Italo Calvino

“A classic is a book that has never finished saying what it has to say.”

—Italo Calvino, Why Read the Classics?

“Sections in the bookstore - Books You Haven't Read - Books You Needn't Read - Books Made for Purposes Other Than Reading - Books Read Even Before You Open Them Since They Belong to the Category of Books Read Before Being Written - Books That If You Had More Than One Life You Would Certainly Also Read But Unfortunately Your Days Are Numbered - Books You Mean to Read But There Are Others You Must Read First - Books Too Expensive Now and You'll Wait 'Til They're Remaindered - Books ditto When They Come Out in Paperback - Books You Can Borrow from Somebody - Books That Everybody's Read So It's As If You Had Read Them, Too - Books You've Been Planning to Read for Ages - Books You've Been Hunting for Years Without Success - Books Dealing with Something You're Working on at the Moment - Books You Want to Own So They'll Be Handy Just in Case - Books You Could Put Aside Maybe to Read This Summer - Books You Need to Go with Other Books on Your Shelves - Books That Fill You with Sudden, Inexplicable Curiosity, Not Easily Justified - Books Read Long Ago Which It's Now Time to Re-read - Books You've Always Pretended to Have Read and Now It's Time to Sit Down and Really Read Them”

—If on a Winter’s Night A Traveler  - Italo Calvino 

“The world is so complicated, tangled, and overloaded that to see into it with any clarity you must prune and prune. ”

—Italo Calvino, If on a Winter’s Night A Traveller +

“A me è successo questo: non sono riuscito a fare finta di niente, non volevo, in fondo. Non potevo far altro che cercare di portarti con me, dal profondo, per egoismo quasi, per farmi stare bene. Anche se sapevo di non potere. Anche se era rischioso. Anche se tu non vuoi, anche se, infine, la tua felicità non dipende da me. E non posso fare a meno di chiedertelo di nuovo. Solo per essere sicuro…Verresti?”

—Italo Calvino

“Mi sembra che il linguaggio venga sempre usato in modo approssimativo, casuale, sbadato e ne provo un fastidio intollerabile. Non si creda che questa mia reazione corrisponda a un'intolleranza per il prossimo: il fastidio peggiore lo provo sentendo parlare me stesso. Per questo cerco di parlare il meno possibile, e se preferisco scrivere è perché scrivendo posso correggere ogni frase tante volte quanto è necessario non dico a essere soddisfatto delle mie parole, ma almeno a eliminare le ragioni d'insoddisfazione di cui posso rendermi conto.”

—Italo Calvino.

“Ho bisogno che lui sappia che io sto correndo verso di lui, ma nello stesso tempo ho bisogno di sapere che lui sta correndo verso di me. ”

—I. Calvino

“In the shop window you have promptly identified the cover with the title you were looking for. Following this visual trail, you have forced your way through the shop past the thick barricade of Books You Haven't Read, which are frowning at you from the tables and shelves, trying to cow you...And thus you pass the outer girdle of ramparts, but then you are attacked by the infantry of Books That If You Had More Than One Life You Would Certainly Also Read But Unfortunately Your Days Are Numbered. With a rapid maneuver you bypass them and move into the phalanxes of the Books You Mean To Read But There Are Others You Must Read First, the Books Too Expensive Now And You'll Wait Till They're Remaindered, the Books ditto When They Come Out in Paperback, Books You Can Borrow From Somebody, Books That Everybody's Read So It's As If You Had Read Them, Too. ”

—Italo Calvino, If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler

“Work stops at sunset. Darkness falls over the building site. The sky is filled with stars. "There is the blueprint," they say. ”

—Invisible Cities, Italo Calvino

“Sei uno che per principio non s’aspetta più niente da niente. Tu sai che il meglio che ci si può aspettare è di evitare il peggio.”

—Italo Calvino
 
 

“What makes lovemaking and reading resemble each other most is that within both of them times and spaces open, different from measurable time and space.”

—Italo Calvino

“Sei uno che per principio non s’aspetta più niente da niente.Tu sai che il meglio che ci si può aspettare è di evitare il peggio.” ”

—Italo Calvino
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