550 Quotes by Italo Calvino

How well I would write if I were not here!

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.

Whether there is such a thing as Reality, of which the various levels are only partial aspects, or whether there are only levels, is something that literature cannot decide. Literature recognizes rather the *reality of the levels.*

Nature in America does not arouse powerful emotions in me.

Cities, like dreams, are made of desires and fears.

New York is a fabled city, a fabulous city.

Sometimes one who thinks himself incomplete is merely young.

Of course, I'm of the generation that grew up with Hemingway and Faulkner as strong influences.

Politics is marginal, but literature moves along by indirection.