Writers divide into those who write biting their nails and those who don't. Some writers write licking their finger. Italo Calvino
Of course, I'm of the generation that grew up with Hemingway and Faulkner as strong influences. Italo Calvino
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. Italo Calvino
What Romantic terminology called genius or talent or inspiration is nothing other than finding the right road empirically, following one's nose, taking shortcuts. Italo Calvino
The Classics are those books which constitute a treasured experience for those who have read and loved them; but they remain just as rich an experience for those who reserve the chance to read them for when they are in the best condition to enjoy them. Italo Calvino
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 my head. But with every idea I have, I already foresee the wrong novels I would write, because I also have critical ideas in my head; I've got a full theory of the perfect novel, and that's what stumps me. Italo Calvino
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. Italo Calvino
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. Italo Calvino
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. Italo Calvino
Classics are books which, the more we think we know them through hearsay, the more original, unexpected, and innovative we find them when we actually read them. Italo Calvino
Biographical data, even those recorded in the public registers, are the most private things one has, and to declare them openly is rather like facing a psychoanalyst. Italo Calvino
When I'm writing a book, I prefer not to speak about it, because only when the book is finished can I try to understand what I've really done and to compare my intentions with the result. Italo Calvino
The satirist is prevented by repulsion from gaining a better knowledge of the world he is attracted to, yet he is forced by attraction to concern himself with the world that repels him. Italo Calvino
Sometimes I try to concentrate on the story I would like to write, and I realize that what interests me is something else entirely, or, rather, not anything precise but everything that does not fit in what I ought to write. Italo Calvino