I think that my first impulse arises from a hypersensitivity or allergy. It seems to me that language is always used in a random, approximate, careless manner, and this distresses me unbearably. Please don’t think that my reaction is the result of intolerance towards my neighbor: the worst discomfort of all comes from hearing myself speak. That’s why I try to talk as little as possible. If I prefer writing, it is because I can revise each sentence until I reach the point where – if not exactly satisfied with my words – I am able at least to eliminate those reasons for dissatisfaction that I can put a finger on. Literature – and I mean the literature that matches up to those requirements – is the promised land in which language becomes what it really ought to be.

I think that my first impulse arises from a hypersensitivity or allergy. It seems to me that language is always used in a random, approximate, careless manner, and this distresses me unbearably. Please don’t think that my reaction is the result of intolerance towards my neighbor: the worst discomfort of all comes from hearing myself speak. That’s why I try to talk as little as possible. If I prefer writing, it is because I can revise each sentence until I reach the point where – if not exactly satisfied with my words – I am able at least to eliminate those reasons for dissatisfaction that I can put a finger on. Literature – and I mean the literature that matches up to those requirements – is the promised land in which language becomes what it really ought to be.

– Italo Calvino –

Six Memos For The Next Millennium

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