407 Quotes by Elena Ferrante

To carry out any project to which you attach your own name you have to love yourself.

Unlike stories, real life, when it has passed, inclines toward obscurity, not clarity.

Her quickness of mind was like a hiss, a dart, a lethal bite. And there was nothing in her appearance that acted as a corrective.

Women, in all fields – whether mothers or not – still encounter an extraordinary number of obstacles. They have to hold too many things together and often sacrifice their aspirations in the name of affections.

I became disenchanted. My first impression, that of finding myself part of a fearless battle, passed. The trepidation at every exam and the joy of passing it with the highest marks had faded. Gone was the pleasure of re-educating my voice, my gestures, my way of dressing and walking, as if I were competing for the prize of best disguise, the mask worn so well that it was almost a face.

Elena Ferrante is the author of several novels. There is nothing mysterious about her, given how she manifests herself – perhaps even too much – in her own writing, the place where her creative life transpires in absolute fullness.

You wanted to write novels, I created a novel with real people, with real blood, in reality.

Marriage by now seemed to me an institution that, contrary to what one might think, stripped coitus of all humanity.

She spoke with a different sort of determination, calmer, as if it were no longer necessary to fight to the death for every little thing.