Italo Calvino

Italo Calvino has written many novels that blend fantasy and reality. Among these are, The Baron in the Trees (1957), Invisible Cities (1972) and If on a winter's night a traveler (1979).

He wrote realism with little success, and then decided to write the novel that he'd like to read. He said, "What stirs literature is the call and attraction of what is not in the dictionary."

And, "A classic is a book that has never finished saying what it has to say."

And, "I feel suspicious about writers who claim to tell the whole truth about themselves, about life, or about the world. I prefer to stay with the truths I find in writers who present themselves as the most bold-faced liars."

He's an inspiration, folks! Basically what he's saying is write the poems you want, the stories, and the novels, but what he's not mentioning is the fact that what you're trying to write you may also want to publish someday...and herein lies the difficulty: do you listen to what brilliant men have to say about writing, or go with your gut?