32 Quotes by Andrea Camilleri

Giulio was against our meeting. He didn't want me getting mixed up in things that, in his opinion, were no concern of mine. For decades the respectable people here did nothing but repeat that the Mafia was no concern of theirs but only involved the people involved in it. But I used to teach my pupils that the see-nothing, know-nothing attitude is the most mortal of sins. So now that its my turn to tell what I saw, I'm supposed to take a step back?

But then why, when talking on the phone, did they quarrel, on average at least once every four sentences? Maybe, though the inspector, it was an effect of the distance between them becoming less and less tolerable with each passing day, since as we grow old - for every now and then one must, yes, look reality in the eye and call things by their proper names - we feel more keenly the need to have the person we love beside us.

È utile (e inutile allo stesso tempo) ripetere che luoghi e nomi sono inventati di ràdica. A chi potrebbe lamentare qualche coincidenza, ricordo che la vita stessa (assai superiore, in fatto d'invenzioni, alla fantasia) non è che una pura coincidenza.

Il catafero di Japichinu sarebbe andato a finire nello sbalanco di qualche chiarchiàro... No, il nonno sapeva quanto fosse religioso il nipoteddru. L'avrebbe fatto seppellire anonimamente in terra consacrata. Dintra il tabbuto di un altro.

Getting seasick?" the inspector asked him at one point. "No. Just sick of myself." "Why?""Because every now and then I realize what a stupid shit I am to go along with some of your brilliant ideas.

Non è che ci sarebbe voluto tutto questo tempo, ma il fatto è che quando hai sbancato i cassetti trovi una quantità di carte vecchie, scordate, alcune delle quali, quasi a forza, vogliono essere lette e tu, inevitabilmente, finisci col precipitare sempre più in fondo al gorgo della memoria e ti tornano in mente macari cose che per anni e anni hai fatto di tutto per scordare. E' un gioco tinto quello dei ricordi, nel quale finisci sempre per perdere.

‹‹Finalmenti ‘ncontrava a ‘na fìmmina che, oltri che ad aviri ‘n sommo grado tutti l’attributi fimminini, possidiva macari un gran paro di cabasisi.››

Montalbano felt moved. This was real friendship, Sicilian friendship, the kind based on intuition, on what was left unsaid. With a true friend, one never needs to ask, because the other understands on his own accordingly.

Sicily has suffered 13 foreign dominations from which she has taken both the best and the worst. The sequence of different cultures has made Sicily a fascinating place, quite unlike any other.