I think our sexuality is all yet to be recounted and that the rich male literary tradition constitutes a huge obstacle.

Those who write need that "willing suspension of disbelief ", as Coleridge called it.

The circle of an empty day is brutal and at night it tightens around your neck like a noose

Is it possible that even happy moments of pleasure never stand up to a rigorous examination? Possible.

Anonymity lets me concentrate exclusively on writing.

Elena Ferrante is the author of several novels. There is nothing mysterious about her, given how she manifests herself - perhaps even too much - in her own writing, the place where her creative life transpires in absolute fullness.

Writers, because they write, are condemned never to be readers of their own stories...The memory of first putting a story into words will always prevent writers from reading their work as an ordinary reader would.