Attilio de Giovanni Quotes in La tigre e la neve (2005)

Attilio de Giovanni: If she dies, they can close this whole show of a world... they can cart it off, unscrew the stars, roll up the sky and put it on a truck, they can turn off this sunlight I love so much. Do you know why I love it so much? Because I love her when the sun shines on her. They can take everything away, these carpets, columns, houses, sand, wind, frogs, ripe watermelons, hail, seven in the evening, May, June, July, basil, bees, the sea, courgettes...

Attilio de Giovanni: I told myself: "There must be people whose job it is to use the right words, put things in a way... who when their heart beats, can get other people's hearts to beat."

Attilio de Giovanni: That day I decided to become a poet.

Fuad: He was a real poet. He was young, fell in love with a woman and married her. A few years later, while he was fighting in some war, he heard his wife had contracted smallpox and had been disfigured. So Al-Giumeili said, "My eyes hurt." And then: "I've gone blind." When his wife died, 12 years later, he opened his eyes again.

Attilio de Giovanni: So as not to upset his wife, he pretended to be blind for 12 years?

Fuad: Every person is a chasm. It makes you dizzy to look down.

Attilio de Giovanni: Allah, the only prayer I know is the Lord's Prayer in Italian. Do you understand Italian? It's a beautiful prayer.

Vittoria: Oh my beloved all creation overflows with passion, and like a golden comet in the sky, from my mouth bursts forth this cry: I love you.

Vittoria: I want to make love to you now.

Attilio de Giovanni: That's the best line I ever heard in my life.

Attilio de Giovanni: [in broken English] Tell him to stay calm! He's very nervous... he's going to shoot me; he's shaking! Stay calm! Molto calmo! Stay calm, I am having heart attack!

[breathes heavy]