The contradiction [trying to use Russian model to reshape Italy] grew to such an extent that I felt totally cut off from the communist world and, in the end, from politics. That was fortunate. The idea of putting literature in second place, after politics, is an enormous mistake, because politics almost never achieves its ideals.

I will start out this evening with an assertion: fantasy is a place where it rains.

In love, as in gluttony, pleasure is a matter of the utmost precision.

A classic is a book which with each rereading offers as much of a sense of discovery as the first reading.

You are about to begin reading Italo Calvino's new novel, If on a winter's night a traveler.

Who are we, who is each one of us, if not a combinatoria of experiences, information, books we have read, things imagined?

I have tried to remove weight, sometimes from people, sometimes from heavenly bodies, sometimes from cities; above all I have tried to remove weight from the structure of stories and from language.