Italo Calvino Classic Quotes & Sayings

I will quote Cioran (who is not yet a classic but will become one): "While they were preparing the hemlock, Socrates was learning a tune on the flute. 'What good will it do you,' they asked, 'to know this tune before you die? — Italo Calvino

1 )Classics are books which, the more we think we know them through hearsay, the more original, unexpected, and innovative we find them when we actually read them.
2)A classic is a work which constantly generates a pulviscular cloud of critical discourse around it, but which always shakes the particles off. — Italo Calvino

A classic is a book which with each rereading offers as much of a sense of discovery as the first reading. — Italo Calvino

A classic is a book that has never finished saying what it has to say. — Italo Calvino

A classic is the term given to any book which comes to represent the whole universe, a book on a par with ancient talismans. — Italo Calvino

A classic is a work which persists as a background noise even when a present that is totally incompatible with it holds sway. — Italo Calvino