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Italo Calvino ITALO CALVINO
The Art of Fiction No. 130
Interviewed by Damien Pettigrew
Issue 124, Fall 1992
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From the Interview
INTERVIEWER
Have you ever been bored?

CALVINO
Yes, in my childhood. But it must be pointed out that childhood boredom is a special kind of boredom. It is a boredom full of dreams, a sort of projection into another place, into another reality. In adulthood, boredom is made of repetition, it is the continuation of something from which we are no longer expecting any surprise. And I . . . would that I had time to get bored today! What I do have is the fear of repeating myself in my literary work. This is the reason that every time I must come up with a new challenge to face, I must find something to do that will look like a novelty, something a little beyond my capabilities.
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