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
A human being becomes human not through the casual convergence of certain biological conditions, but through an act of will and love on the part of other people.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Humanity is shaped by the love and care of others rather than just biology.
Italo Calvino emphasizes that what makes us truly human goes beyond mere biological factors; it involves the intentional actions of love and will from those around us. Our development as human beings is deeply rooted in the relationships we have and the nurturing we receive, highlighting the importance of community and connection in defining our humanity.
Themes
HumanityLoveRelationshipsCommunityDevelopment
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about the importance of community support, one might reference this quote to highlight the role of love in personhood.
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...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.
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Nobody these days holds the written word in such high esteem as police states do.
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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.
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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
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