Italo Calvino Quotes

One must look for one thing only, to find many.

I opened up every can of worms I could. I got to the place where I would peel back one layer, and then another layer, and the stuff that would come up underneath was so inspiring, it made me want to write about it.

The enchanting charms of this sublime science reveal only to those who have the courage to go deeply into it.

No matter how prosaic something is that you've done and been a part of again and again, there is so much more there that you haven't seen.

Is it sufficient that you have learned to drive the car, or shall we look and see what is under the hood? Most people go through life without ever knowing.

I'm not just interested in fascinating faces or trees. I want to bore in deeper.

You discover how confounding the world is when you try to draw it. You look at a car, and you try to see its car-ness, and you're like an immigrant to your own world. You don't have to travel to encounter weirdness. You wake up to it.

It's always interesting exploring something that has dimensions and layers to it.

I love the idea that if you watch something twice, three times, four times, you'll continuously notice new things.

I thought to myself that he contained a whole universe that I had yet to know.

There is so much more to understand.

You're always learning about this thing everytime you pick it up

No matter how deeply you come to know a place, you can keep coming back to know it more.

You have to know how to look even if you don't know what you're looking for.

Those who speculate from the shore about the ocean shall know only its surface, but those who would know the depths of the ocean must be willing to plunge into it.

In everything well known something worthy of thought still lurks.

There's a lot of disorder that comes along with wanting to know everything and wanting to try everything and wanting to experience everything, but there's a lot of knowledge that comes out of it too.

I don't mind hidden depths but I insist that there be a surface.

Travel is like knowledge. The more you see, the more you know you haven’t seen.

The field of vision is comparable, for me, to the terrain of an archaeological dig. To see is to be on guard, to wait for what emerges from the background, without any name, without any particular interest: what was silent will speak, what is closed will open and will take on a voice.

A very sea of thought; neither calm nor clear, if you will, yet wherein the toughest pearl-diver may dive to his utmost depth, and return not only with sea-wreck but with true orients.

It takes a man of genius to travel in his own country, in his native village; to make any progress between his door and his gate.

Deep is the well of truth and long does it take to know what has fallen into its depths.

You have to continue and discover the grammar of things, of what we can see.

I spy with my little eye a great story.