What Romantic terminology called genius or talent or inspiration is nothing other than finding the right road empirically, following ones nose, taking shortcuts. – Italo Calvino
It is not the voice that commands the story: it is the ear. – Italo Calvino
Everything can change, but not the language that we carry inside us, like a world more exclusive and final than ones mothers womb. – 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