Italo Calvino

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 Calvino


What makes lovemaking and reading resemble each other most is that within both of them times and spaces open, different from measurable time and space.

—Italo Calvino