Thought is prophecy and memory. life is the future and the past. Life is never present. The present never is. (From Diaries, 1927-1961) - Antonio Delfini

She took a long sigh and slowly stood up. Big and heavy, with a wide and long gray skirt with black stripes, and a dark, all-worked blouse that smelled like a closed cupboard with biscuits forgotten inside. (From The Milliner, p. 123)

I was promoted to serf (that's progress). (From Diaries, 1927-1961)

(In parentheses I declare my hatred for all those who for Rome or from Rome wanted, against me and against many other Italians, to sow the seed of dejection on my - on our - proud feeling of not being born in Rome, not to live in Rome, and on my - our - impression that in Rome, and only in Rome, one finds that given form of life that the demeaners of this century call province and provincialism). (From Introduction, pp. 71-92)