The novels that attract me most are those that create an illusion of transparency around a knot of human relationships as obscure, cruel, and perverse as possible.
Italo CalvinoRead
The struggle of literature is in fact a struggle to escape from the confines of language; it stretches out from the utmost limits of what can be said; what stirs literature is the call and attraction of what is not in the dictionary.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Literature transcends the limitations of language, reaching for the unexpressed and unspeakable.
This quote by Italo Calvino emphasizes the inherent challenge literature faces in adequately conveying the complexities of human experience. It suggests that true literary art struggles against the constraints of language, seeking to express emotions, thoughts, and ideas that often elude precise definition, drawing inspiration from what lies beyond the boundaries of conventional vocabulary.
Themes
LiteratureLanguageExpressionArtCreativity
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a literary analysis presentation to discuss the limitations and possibilities of language in literature.
More from Italo Calvino
All quotes →Your first book is the only one that matters. Perhaps a writer should write only that one. That is the one moment when you make the big leap; the opportunity to express yourself is offered that once, and you untie the knot within you then or never again.
Italo CalvinoRead
...and every Wednesday the perfumed young lady slips me a hundred-crown note to leave her alone with the convict. And by Thursday the hundred crowns are already gone in so much beer. And when the visiting hour is over, the young lady comes out with the stink of jail in her elegant clothes; and the prisoner goes back to his cell with the lady's perfume in his jailbird's suit. And I'm left with the smell of beer. Life is nothing but trading smells.
Italo CalvinoRead
Nobody these days holds the written word in such high esteem as police states do.
Italo CalvinoRead
Fantasy is like jam. . . . You have to spread it on a solid piece of bread. If not, it remains a shapeless thing . . . out of which you can’t make anything.
Italo CalvinoRead
Work stops at sunset. Darkness falls over the building site. The sky is filled with stars. "There is the blueprint," they say.
Italo CalvinoRead
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