25 Quotes by Leonardo Sciascia

All of Sicily is a dimension of the imagination.

La sicurezza del potere si fonda sull’insicurezza dei cittadini.

The best thing on translation was said by Cervantes: translation is the other side of a tapestry.

A sort of melancholy, and regret, seizes us every time we meet a sophisticated, adulterated idiot. Oh the nice fools of yestertime! Genuine, natural. Like homemade bread.

It’s like squeezing tripe: nothing comes out,′ he said, meaning the Colasberna brothers, their partners, the town in general and Sicily as a whole.

There’s a proverb, a maxim, that runs, ‘The dead man is dead; let’s give a hand to the living.’ Now, you say that to a man from the North, and he visualizes the scene of an accident with one dead and one injured man; it’s reasonable to let the dead man be and to set about saving the injured man. But a Sicilian visualizes a murdered man and his murderer, and the living man who’s to be helped is the murderer.

Ma le mie certezze, lei questo non lo sa, sono altrettanto corrosive che i suoi dubbi...