The Notebook, The Proof, The Third Lie: Three Novels

I answer that I try to write true stories but that at a given point the story becomes unbearable because of it’s very truth, and then I have to change it. I tell her that I try to tell my story but all of a sudden I can’t-I don’t have the courage, it hurts too much. And so I embellish everything and describe things not as they happened but the way I wished they happened. She says, “Yes, there are lives sadder than the saddest of books.” I say, “Yes. No book, no matter how sad, can be as sad as a life.

You don't want to fight the enemy anymore?" "I don't want to fight anyone. I have no enemies. I want to go home.

You will forget. Life is like that. Everything goes in time. Memories blur, pain diminishes. I remember my wife as one remembers a bird or a flower

Seen nothing? Idiot! We have all the work and all the worry: children to feed, wounds to tend. Once the war is over, you men are all heroes. The dead: heroes. The survivors: heroes. The maimed: heroes. That’s why you invented war. It’s your war. You wanted it, so get on with it – heroes, my ass!

On our way home we throw the apples, the biscuits, the chocolate and the coins in the tall grass by the roadside. It is impossible to throw away the stroking on our hair

As soon as you begin to think, you can no longer love life

And death hasn’t come. It never does come when you call it. It enjoys torturing us. I’ve been calling for it for years and it pays me no attention

No book, no matter how sad, can be as sad as a life.

Every one of us commits a fatal mistake sometime in his life. When we realize it, the damage is already done

Yes, sir. Blackmail…Yes. It’s deplorable that we’ve been forced to this

People are cruel. They like to kill. It’s the war that has taught them that. And there are explosives lying around everywhere

Le parole che definiscono i sentimenti sono molto vaghe; è meglio evitare il loro impiego e attenersi alle descrizioni degli oggetti, degli esseri umani e di se stessi, vale a dire alla descrizione fedele dei fatti.

My walls no longer protect me. They never protected me. Their solidity is mere illusion, their whiteness is stained

It is impossible to throw away the stroking on our hair.

So che morirò, Peter, ma non capisco. Al posto di un solo cadavere, quello di mia sorella, ce ne sarà un secondo, il mio. Ma chi ha bisogno di un secondo cadavere? Dio certamente no, Lui non sa che farsene dei nostri corpi. La società? Ci guadagnerebbe un libro o dei libri se mi lasciasse vivere, invece di guadagnarci un cadavere in più che non gioverà a nessuno.

– Then why are you begging? – To find out what effect it has and to observe people’s reaction

I don't think. I can't allow myself the luxury. I've lived with fear since I was a child.

Later, with time, we no longer need a shawl over our eyes or grass in our ears. The one playing the blind man simply turns his gaze inward, and the deaf one shuts his ears to all sounds

Un uomo dice: -Tu chiudi il becco! Le donne non sanno niente della guerra. La donna dice: -Non sanno niente? Coglione! Abbiamo tutto il lavoro, tutte le preoccupazioni: i bambini da sfamare. i feriti da curare. Voi, una volta finita la guerra siete tutti degli eroi. Morti: eroi. Sopravvissuti: eroi. Mutilati: eroi. E' per questo che avete inventato la guerra, voi uomini. e' la vostra guerra. L'avete voluta voi. fatela allora, eroi dei miei stivali!

Crying is no use, you know. We never cry, even though we aren’t men yet, like you

It’s hardly matters whether it’s true or false. The point is the slander. People love scandal

Un uomo dice: - Tu chiudi il becco! Le donne non sanno niente della guerra. La donna dice: - Non sanno niente? Coglione! Abbiamo tutto il lavoro, tutte le preoccupazioni: i bambini da sfamare, i feriti da curare. Voi, una volta finita la guerra siete tutti degli eroi. Morti: eroi. Sopravvissuti: eroi. Mutilati: eroi. E' per questo che avete inventato la guerra, voi uomini. E' la vostra guerra. L'avete voluta voi, fatela allora, eroi dei miei stivali!

The frontier has been rebuilt. It is now impassable. Our country is surrounded by barbed wire; we are completely cut off from the rest of the world

It is easier to give than to receive, is that it? Pride is a sin, Father

The people have already atoned For the past and the future