Cesare Pavese quotes - page 7

There is a reason why I came back to this place-came back here instead of to Canelli, Barbaresco or Alba. It is almost certain that I was not born here; where I was born I don't know. There is not a house or a bit of ground or a handful of dust hereabouts of which I can say: "This was me before I was born." (Cesare Pavese)
That you need a village, if only for the pleasure of leaving it. Your own village means that you're not alone, that you know there's something of you in the people and the plants and the soil, that even when you are not there it waits to welcome you. View quote
Cesare Pavese
It wasn't a country where a man could settle down and rest his head and say to the others, "Here I am for good or ill. For good or ill let me leave in peace." This was what was frightening. View quote
Cesare Pavese
He told them it was only dogs that bark and go for strange dogs, and men set on a dog because it suits them to show that they are still masters, but if the dogs weren't dumb animals they would come to an agreements with each other and start barking at them. View quote
Cesare Pavese
When we read, we are not looking for new ideas, but to see our own thoughts given the seal of confirmation on the printed page. The words that strike us are those that awake an echo in a zone we have already made our own-the place where we live-and the vibration enables us to find fresh starting points within ourselves. View quote
Cesare Pavese
The thing most feared in secret always happens. I write: oh Thou, have mercy. And then? All it takes is a little courage. The more the pain grows clear and definite, the more the instinct for life asserts itself and the thought of suicide recedes. It seemed easy when I thought of it. Weak women have done it. It takes humility, not pride. All this is sickening. Not words. An act. I won't write any more. View quote
Cesare Pavese
Reality is a prison, where one vegetates and always will. All the rest thought, action is just a pastime, mental or physical. What counts then, is to come to grips with reality. The rest can go. View quote
Cesare Pavese
Suffering is by no means a privilege, a sign of nobility, a reminder of God. Suffering is a fierce, bestial thing, commonplace, uncalled for, natural as air. It is intangible no one can grasp it or fight against it it dwells in time -- is the same thing as time if it comes in fits and starts, that is only so as to leave the sufferer more defenseless during the moments that follow, those long moments when one relives the last bout of torture and waits for the next. View quote
Cesare Pavese
When writing poetry, it is not that produces a bright idea, but the bright idea that kindles the fire of. View quote
Cesare Pavese