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Success depends on the capacity to manipulate the obvious with calculated precision.
Elena Ferrante -
I don't have any special passion for politics, it being a never-ending merry-go-round of bosses big and small, all generally mediocre. I actually find it boring.
Elena Ferrante
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The conclusion we drew from this convinced us that it was best to do everything on purpose, deliberately, so that you would know what to expect.
Elena Ferrante -
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 of yesterday, or even of tomorrow, everything is this, now: the street is this, the doorway is this, the stairs are this, this is Mamma, this is Papa, this is the day, this the night.
Elena Ferrante -
Maturity consisted in accepting the turn that existence had taken without getting too upset.
Elena Ferrante -
Is it possible that even happy moments of pleasure never stand up to a rigorous examination? Possible.
Elena Ferrante -
If she kept him next to her she was afraid of breaking him, if she pushed him too far away she was afraid of losing him.
Elena Ferrante -
In his view love ended only when it was possible to return to oneself without fear or disgust.
Elena Ferrante
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The university doesn’t free women but completes their repression.
Elena Ferrante -
She went like that saint who, although she still has her head on her shoulders, is carrying it in her hands, as if it had already been cut off.
Elena Ferrante -
I had to accept myself outside of her.
Elena Ferrante -
Then she added a sentence I will always remember: “the beauty of mind Cerullo had from childhood never found an outlet, Greco, it has all ended up in her face, in her breasts, in her thighs, in her ass, places where it soon fades and will be as if she never had it.
Elena Ferrante -
Oh of course it pleased me, it pleased me greatly. But I also felt as if my body had the consistency of egg shell, and a slight pressure on my arm, on my forehead, on my stomach would be enough to break it and dig out all my secrets, in particular those which were secrets even to me.
Elena Ferrante -
But the happy ending has to do with the tricks of the narrative, not with life, or even love, which is an uncontrollable, changeable feeling, with nasty surprises that are alien to the happy ending.
Elena Ferrante
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You’re really a good girl, poor you.
Elena Ferrante -
She was suggesting that I separate also from my third child. She seemed to be saying: Imma would be better off and so would you. I replied: If Imma leaves me, too, my life will no longer have meaning. But she smiled: Where is it written that lives should have meaning?
Elena Ferrante -
I am therefore Italian, completely and with pride. But if I could, I would descend into all languages and let myself be permeated by them all. Even the terrible Google Translate consoles me. We can be much more than what we happen to be.
Elena Ferrante -
I became disenchanted. My first impression, that of finding myself part of a fearless battle, passed. The trepidation at every exam and the joy of passing it with the highest marks had faded. Gone was the pleasure of re-educating my voice, my gestures, my way of dressing and walking, as if I were competing for the prize of best disguise, the mask worn so well that it was almost a face.
Elena Ferrante -
His wealth, his upbringing, his reputation, well known among the students, as a young militant on the left, his sociability, even his courage when he delivered carefully measured speeches against powerful people within and outside the university—all this had given him an aura that automatically extended to me, as his fiancée or girlfriend or companion, as if the pure and simple fact that he loved me were the public sanctioning of my talents.
Elena Ferrante -
How foolish to think you can tell your children about yourself before they're at least fifty. To ask to be seen by them as a person and not as a function. To say : I am your history, you begin from me, listen to me, it could be useful to you.
Elena Ferrante
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How many things pass through time randomly detached from the bodies and voices of persons. My mother knew the art of making clothes last forever.
Elena Ferrante -
Finally, I spoke of the necessity of recounting frankly every human experience, including, I said emphatically, what seems unsayable and what we do not speak of even to ourselves.
Elena Ferrante -
Thus the story of the facts has to reckon with filters, deferments, partial truths, half lies: from it comes an arduous measurement of time passed that is based completely on the unreliable measuring device of words.
Elena Ferrante -
No one depended anymore on my care and, finally, even I was no longer a burden to myself.
Elena Ferrante