Quotes by Elena Ferrante

“I doubt that work ennobles man and I am absolutely certain that it does not ennoble woman.”

“As a result of subduing the forces of nature with the tools that we invent, we find ourselves today at the point where the force of our tools has become a greater concern than the forces of nature.”

“Engineering -nature is engineering, so is culture, science is right behind, only chaos is not an engineer- and, along with it, the furious need to reproduce.”

“The solitude of women's minds is regrettable, I said to myself, it's a waste to be separated from each other without procedures, without tradition.”

“It seemed to me - articulated in words of today - that not only did she know how to put things well but she was developing a gift that I was already familiar with: more effectively than she had as ...”

“But one afternoon Lila said softly that there was nothing that could eliminate the conflict between the rich and the poor. "Why?""Those who are on the bottom always want to be on top, those who are...”

“Dont be timid. Youre a writer, use your role, test it, make something of it. These are decisive times, everything is turning upside down. Participate, be present. And begin with the scum in your ar...”

“I didnt realize that in his wish to transform me was the proof that he didnt like me as I was, he wanted me to be different, or, rather, he didnt want just a woman, he wanted the woman he imagined ...”

“You really work in those conditions?She, irritated by the contact, pulled her arm away, protesting: And how do you work, the two of you, how do you work?They didnt answer. They worked hard, that wa...”

“She, on the other hand, seized things, truly wanted them, was passionate about them, played for all or nothing, and wasnt afraid of contempt, mockery, spitting, beatings.”

“Youre really a good girl, poor you.”

“Maybe we really are made of the same clay, maybe we really are condemned, blameless, to the same, identical mediocrity.”

“Perhaps Lila was right: my bookeven though it was having so much successreally was bad, and this was because it was well organized, because it was written with obsessive care, because I hadnt been ...”

“Maybe I should tell her that things without meaning are the most beautiful ones. Its a good sentence, shell like it.”

“The most difficult achievement is the capacity to see oneself, to name oneself, to imagine oneself. If in daily life we use ideologies, common sense, religion, even literature itself to disguise ou...”

“Without reserve, I can say that my entire identity is in the books I write.”

“Languages for me have a secret venom that every so often foams up and for which there is no antidote.”

“The hardest things to talk about are the ones we ourselves can't understand.”

“A woman's body does a thousand different things, toils, runs, studies, fantasizes, invents, wearies, and meanwhile the breasts enlarge, the lips of the sex swell, the flesh throbs with a round life...”

“Adults, waiting for tomorrow, move in a present behind which is yesterday or the day before yesterday or at most last week: they don't want to think about the rest. Children don't know the meaning ...”