Elena Ferrante Quotes

I'm lying, yes, but why do you force me to give a linear explanation; linear explanations are almost always lies.

Is it possible that even happy moments of pleasure never stand up to a rigorous examination? Possible.

I soon had to admit that what I did by myself couldn't excite me, only what Lila touched became important.

...maybe, in the face of abandonment, we are all the same; maybe not even a very orderly mind can endure the discovery of not being loved.

A woman's body does a thousand different things, toils, runs, studies, fantasizes, invents, wearies, and meanwhile the breasts enlarge, the lips of the sex swell, the flesh throbs with a round life that is yours, your life, and yet pushes elsewhere, draws away from you although it inhabits your belly, joyful and weighty, felt as a greedy impulse and yet repellent, like an insect's poison injected into a vein.

She, on the other hand, seized things, truly wanted them, was passionate about them, played for all or nothing, and wasn’t afraid of contempt, mockery, spitting, beatings.

As a result of subduing the forces of nature with the tools that we invent, we find ourselves today at the point where the force of our tools has become a greater concern than the forces of nature.

Maybe I should tell her that things without meaning are the most beautiful ones. It’s a good sentence, she’ll like it.