Italo Calvino Quotes

For me, it would be pointless to write a novel that I knew I could complete within a specific length of time. I could do that only by repeating something I had done before, and I've never wanted to do that.

In the creative industries, there are few things more exciting than a zinger - a thought, idea, line, plot device - anything really, that just totally works in a fundamentally new and fresh way. It's like a uniquely lovely melody or a new taste idea in cooking. Something special, something new, something wonderful. They're also very rare.

All good things which exist are the fruits of originality.

Make something new, and define territory that's never been. I fall in love with shows because I've never see that before. I fall in love with new vocabularies.

Originality is a thing we constantly clamour for, and constantly quarrel with.

Generally what I produce is new. Of course, they are often variations on the same subject.

I have to believe everything I write is brand new and I'm writing in this way about these people in a completely new situation for the very first time.

The very essence of the creative is its novelty, and hence we have no standard by which to judge it.

I try to make things that are fresh and different, even if they are inspired by classic things.

I fear becoming formulaic. Some of my books are.

Of course you can't do anything completely original.

It's hard to find things that haven't been said before or drawn before, but I'm trying.

Originality is only variation.

I try to never repeat a character. I always try to find something new and fresh and interesting that inspires me.

Originality is the only thing that counts. But the originator uses material and ideas that occur round him and pass through him. And out of his experience comes the original creation.

A requirement of creativity is that it contributes to change. Creativity keeps the creator alive.

The difference between Talent and Genius is that Talent says things which he has never heard but once, and Genius things which he has never heard.

I don't think anybody came into the movie business to be unoriginal and plagiarising and not having an original idea in their brain.

What gets me excited is the original principle.

The fact that it's hard to create an original British musical doesn't mean you shouldn't try.

I'm a person who is always trying to write in a different vein.

Nobody really invents anything that hasn't been done before.

I wanted each of my books to be very different from the others, each to be special and uncategorizable, and I knew I could only do that a few times before I was in danger of repeating myself.

To have frequent recourse to narrative betrays great want of imagination.

Originality is the one thing which unoriginal minds cannot feel the use of.