Italo Calvino Quotes

I don't think ignorance is a way that you gain distance on something.

Write about what you know, that's what I say.

When old people speak it is not because of the sweetness of words in our mouths; it is because we see something which you do not see.

Our job is not to set things right but to see them right.

Were one merely to seek information, one should inquire of the man who hates, but if one wishes to know what truly is, one better ask the one who loves.

With time and experience comes a different perception of what's going on around you.

Facts are many, but the truth is one.

Wisdom comes by disillusionment.

I've been in this business a long time, and I'm very clear on what is real and what is fleeting.

The first essential in writing about anything is that the writer should have no experience of the matter.

If a man writes a book, let him set down only what he knows. I have guesses enough of my own.

Life's pretty funny when you're objectively on the outside looking at it.

You get more insight as you get older, on everything.

I was always an outsider, always standing outside, observing and trying to figure things out. Which is exactly what you need to do as a writer, I suppose.

The older you get, the better you get, because you've seen more. You don't necessarily have to go through a lot, but you have to witness it in order to recreate it.

Understanding is a three-edged sword. Your side, my side, and the truth.

The reason why so few good books are written is that so few people who can write know anything.

Knowledge shrinks as wisdom grows.

Hindsight is always twenty-twenty.

The older you get, of course, the knowingness of the truth - the ownership of knowing - is louder.

What a man sees depends on what he looks at and what his previous experience has taught him to see.

We shall see but a little way if we require to understand what we see.

I seek the truth.

There's a lot of clarity in hindsight.

From whatever you wish to know and measure you must take your leave, at least for a time. Only when you have left the town can yousee how high its towers rise above the houses.