Antonio Tabucchi
Antonio Tabucchi
Antonio Tabucchiwas an Italian writer and academic who taught Portuguese language and literature at the University of Siena, Italy...
NationalityItalian
ProfessionWriter
Date of Birth23 September 1943
CountryItaly
again fifty gypsies half mass million preparing second thousands war
Fifty years after half a million gypsies were exterminated in the Second World War - thousands of them in Auschwitz - we're again preparing the mass killing of this minority.
italian-writer life
We all want to be someone else but without ceasing to be ourselves. I think it's very important to defend this idea in real life too.
forced glimpse image italian-writer lives manage others people themselves whether
I don't know whether these people are going to find themselves, but as they live their lives they have no choice but to face up to the image others have of them. They're forced to look at themselves in a mirror, and they often manage to glimpse something of themselves.
case foreign invasion italian-writer targets
When you have a foreign invasion - in this case by the Indonesian army - writers, intellectuals, newspapers and magazines are the first targets of repression.
white doubt shirts
Doubts are like stains on a shirt. I like shirts with stains, because when I'm given a shirt that's too clean, one that's completely white, I immediately start having doubts.
people doubt robots
People with lots of doubts sometimes find life more oppressive and exhausting than others, but they're more energetic - they aren't robots.
people contradiction
I've always been drawn to tormented people full of contradictions.
mean perfection democracy
But democracy isn't a state of perfection. It has to be improved, and that means constant vigilance.
thinking hands four-elements
But I don't think I have any particular talent for prediction, because when you have three or four elements in hand, you don't have to be a genius to reach certain conclusions.
teacher views literature
Literature is my life of course, but from an ontological point of view. From an existential point of view, I like being a teacher.
choices doubt world
It's very useful when politicians have doubts because there are so many choices to be made in the world.
dream jobs desire
Literature for me isn't a workaday job, but something which involves desires, dreams and fantasy.
character mean creating
The most important basis of any novel is wanting to be someone else, and this means creating a character.
country mean expression
In a novel, my feelings and sense of outrage can find a broader means of expression which would be more symbolic and applicable to many European countries.