Difficult Loves Quotes
"The line between the reality that is photographed because it seems beautiful to us and the reality that seems beautiful because it has been photographed is very narrow."
"Photography has a meaning only if it exhausts all possible images."
"To catch Bice in the street when she didn’t know he was watching her, to keep her within the range of hidden lenses, to photograph her not only without letting himself be seen but without seeing her, to surprise her as she was in the absence of his gaze, of any gaze."
"A certain solemnity was needed, a certain pomp, like the official photos of queens."
"The taste for the spontaneous, natural, lifelike snapshot kills spontaneity, drives away the present."
"The first course leads to stupidity; the second, to madness."
"The rest can drown in the unreliable shadow of memory."
"Perhaps true, total photography, he thought, is a pile of fragments of private images, against the creased background of massacres and coronations."
"The train moved down towards the river; it was a great life."
"Everything seemed to be there to encourage him, to give a spring to his steps like the rubberized pavement of the station."
"Tomorrow morning, as soon as he landed at the Rome Termini Station, he would run, token in hand, to the nearest public telephone, dial the number, and say: "Hello, darling, I’m here . . .""
"As sometimes happens with men whose life is most conditioned by others, extrovert, Federico tended constantly to defend his own condition of inner concentration."
"He had learned that being in a setting where everything can only be in its place, the same as always, anonymous, without possible surprises, filled him with calm, with self-awareness, freedom of thought."
"But something was still missing: what? Ah: he heard the bass voice approaching under the canopy: "Pillows!""
"That slender rectangle of comfort prefigured later comforts, later intimacy, later sweetness, whose enjoyment was the reason he was setting out on this journey."
"He promptly resumed his staid mien, concentrated on the reading of his paper, denying even to himself that he had been caught a moment before in such a childish mood."
"Fornero was a boy. You couldn’t think of using big words, for him."
"He was a man who travels in corrugated iron, or paints, whereas I . . ."
"His forte had always been an ability to dismiss from the area of his thoughts any aspect of reality that upset him or was of no use to him."
"Amilcare became aware that nobody would recognize him. The eyeglasses that made the rest of the world visible to him, those eyeglasses in their enormous black frames, made him invisible."
"Waking and knowing at once where you are offers two different possibilities of satisfaction."
"The sun beat down hard, the rock was burning, and after a while Amedeo felt he was one with the rock."
"Every summer, the most laborious packing before the departure for the sea involved the heavy suitcase to be filled with books."
"But, as he swam, he realized that the curiosity occupying more and more of his mind was that of knowing the outcome – for example – of the story of Albertine."
"The first thing he said is: "he wears glasses"; so that accessory detail, which two weeks ago was completely unknown to you, becomes your prime attribute, is identified with your very existence."
"The beautiful thing about night was, however, that the margin of haziness his lenses dispelled in daylight, here remained."
"The best part of his sleep, that of the first hours of daylight, had almost no breaks."
"In V. Amilcare Carruga no longer had any real relatives; and his group of close friends had also dispersed long since."
"Their love-making was a perfect match. It could perhaps have been extended a bit longer: but then hadn’t everything been lightning-fast in their encounter?"
"The sun was gradually setting behind the next promontory, and then the next, and the one after that, leaving remnants of color, against the light."
"Nothing is more irritating when you’re eager to resume reading than to have to search through the book, unable to find your place."
"He caught on, finally. The fact was that he was near-sighted."
"But the newest world his glasses opened to him was that of the night."
"But still, and above all, it was a pillow; namely, a soft object (though pressed and compact) and white (though covered with rubber-stamp marks) from the steam laundry."
"It was only because of Isa Maria Bietti that he had come back, as it was only because of Isa Maria Bietti that he had decided to leave V. and had remained away so many years."
"The only antidote, I know, if you want me to tell you . . ."
"Elide instinctively ran one hand through her hair, forced her eyes wide open, as if every time she were ashamed of that first sight her husband had of her on coming home, always such a mess, her face half-asleep."
"The bed was as Elide had left it on getting up, but on his side, Arturo’s, it was almost intact, as if it had just been made."
"The two noises – the sound of the clock and his tread as he came in – merged in Elide’s mind, reaching her in the depths of her sleep, the compact early-morning sleep that she tried to squeeze out for a few more seconds, her face buried in the pillow."
"The fact that the concierge hadn’t opened up yet was a bore, a great bore, but there was something about that early morning air, about being alone here at that hour that made her blood race not at all unpleasantly."
"When the table was set, when everything that had been prepared was placed within reach so they wouldn’t have to get up afterwards, then came the moment of yearning that overwhelmed them both, the thought that they had so little time to be together, and they could hardly raise the spoon to their mouth, in their longing just to sit there and hold hands."
"Every silence consists of the network of minuscule sounds that enfolds it."
"Happiness, for Usnelli, was a suspended condition, to be lived, holding your breath."
"For him, being in love with Delia had always been like this, as in the mirror of this cavern: in a world beyond words."
"It was the period when taxation was pressing hard."
"But you’re mad. Go into business with Caisotti! You and your mother!"
"All right, Caisotti, if that’s the way you want it. We’re still prepared to drop the whole thing."
"If he signs this, you’re safe – he won’t be able to touch you."
"Excuse me," he began, "I just wanted to say – about those apartments, if you had thought at all about that part of town, the question of sale or lease is something we could discuss."
"You think this is my idea of a joke?" he whined. "Keeping my men idle, machinery rented for nothing, losing the best time of the year, missing my delivery dates. . . . If they won’t let me have the cement, what the hell can I do?"
"You must be mad," Signora Anfossi said, shaking her head.
"You really needn’t have troubled, Signor Anfossi," she said. "I was coming to see you tomorrow or the day after."
"Boys, boys!" she shouted toward the dining room. "They’ve finished the roof!"