Quotes by Italo Calvino

"A classic is a book that has never finished saying what it has to say."

"Without translation, I would be limited to the borders of my own country. The translator is my most important ally. He introduces me to the world."

"In abortion, the person who is massacred, physically and morally, is the woman."

"Traveling, you realize that differences are lost: each city takes to resembling all cities, places exchange their form, order, distances, a shapeless dust cloud invades the continents."

"What Romantic terminology called genius or talent or inspiration is nothing other than finding the right road empirically, following one's nose, taking shortcuts."

"The satirist is prevented by repulsion from gaining a better knowledge of the world he is attracted to, yet he is forced by attraction to concern himself with the world that repels him."