Life & Wisdom Quote by Antonio Tabucchi

The phrasing is almost mischievous in its modesty: "I claim the right" sounds like a declaration, but what he’s declaring is merely permission to do something "once in a while". Tabucchi frames moral or political commitment not as a permanent posture but as a contested entitlement, something you have to insist on in a culture that subtly discourages it. The line carries an implied adversary: a public sphere where taking a stand is treated as impolite, naive, or dangerously earnest, and where writers are nudged toward tasteful ambiguity.

That tension fits Tabucchi’s broader sensibility. Writing in the long aftershocks of European authoritarianism, and deeply engaged with Portugal’s history and its literature of doubles and masks, he understood how easily societies normalize silence. His work often circles the ethics of uncertainty: the way people evade responsibility by hiding behind complexity, irony, or the comfort of private life. In that light, "once in a while" isn’t a retreat; it’s an indictment. It suggests that speaking plainly has become exceptional, even suspicious, as if conviction were a kind of breach of etiquette.

The verb "claim" matters most. He’s not saying he always knows the truth, or that every issue deserves a manifesto. He’s asserting a civic space for the writer: not the role of a preacher, but the right to step out from behind the novel’s veils when the moment demands it. The subtext is clear: neutrality isn’t a default setting; it’s a choice, and often a comfortable one.