Memoria

'Memory has to be strong enough to enable us to act without forgetting what we intended to do, to learn without ceasing to be the same person, but it also has to be weak enough to allow us to keep moving into the future.'

- Italo Calvino

I can't seem to find the original quote, which would have been in Italian; but I really like what Calvino writes, he has such thoughtful ways of phrasing things.

Escape

'The struggle with 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.'

- Italo Calvino

Italian Folktales

I found this gem of a book in an opshop for four dollars a couple of days ago, after reading about it online just the day before. Italo Calvino has chosen a wide range of Italian folktales from all around the country, thoroughly researching their origin and versions before retelling them in this collection of two hundred stories. I've only just started to read them, and so far I am really enjoying them. Might have to hunt down an Italian version and read them side by side.