407 Quotes by Elena Ferrante

Religion will disappear from men’s consciousness when, finally, we have constructed a world of equals, without class distinctions, and with a sound of scientific conception of society and of life.

In order not to cut out a large part of one’s private life, the creative work should not swallow up every other form of self-expression. But that is the most complicated thing.

Is it so easy – I thought – to die in the life of the people we can’t live without?

I, too, would find out that old age is a brute, ferocious beast.

I now knew a method of speaking and writing that – by means of a refined vocabulary, stately and thoughtful pacing, a determined arrangement of arguments, and a formal orderliness that wasn’t supposed to fail – sought to annihilate the interlocutor to the point where he lost the will to object.

She’s lucky to be so loved, to love. Lucky to be adored for what she is and for what she invents. Now that she’s given her brother what he wanted, now that she’s taken him out of danger, surely she’ll invent something else. So I don’t want to lose sight of her. Something will happen.

A book should push the reader to confront himself and the world.

I didn’t hear what he said, but I felt like laughing at his artificial imperiousness. The laugh took away every desire to attack, drained me... React. I began to tidy up. When I had finished I began again, a kind of roundup of everything that didn’t appear to be in order. Lucidity, determination, hold on to life.

The attentions of Pasquale Peluso consoled me greatly, I liked that he made me laugh. Maybe I’m not so ugly, I thought, maybe I can’t see myself.