36 'Call Me by Your Name' Book Quotes from Popular Love Story

"Call Me by Your Name" is a revered book that focuses on an adolescent boy and the feelings and consequences of those feelings that he develops for an older man during the summer. Read these 36 quotes to find out more.

"Call Me by Your Name" is a novel by author André Aciman that follows a young teenage boy, Elio, who explores his sexuality and develops a deep infatuation with Oliver. Oliver is an academic staying with Elio and his family for the summer in the Italian Riviera for scholastic research.

The two slowly but surely develop a strong attraction to one another throughout his stay, which eventually blooms into a short-lived romance. Read the following 36 quotes from the novel to discover more.

Characters Elio and Oliver from the film “Call Me By Your Name,” with a quote by the author, André Aciman, from the book it’s based on: “Call me by your name and I'll call you by mine.” | Source: Facebook.com/CallMeByYourNameFilm

Call Me by Your Name Iconic Quotes

“We had the stars, you and I. And this is given once only.” ― André Aciman, "Call Me by Your Name"

“I'm not wise at all. I told you, I know nothing. I know books, and I know how to string words together--it doesn't mean I know how to speak about the things that matter most to me." ― André Aciman, "Call Me by Your Name"

“People who read are hiders. They hide who they are. People who hide don’t always like who they are.” ― André Aciman, "Call Me by Your Name"

“Whatever happens between us, Elio, I just want you to know. Don’t ever say you didn’t know.” ― André Aciman, "Call Me by Your Name"

“Call me by your name and I'll call you by mine.” ― André Aciman, "Call Me by Your Name"

The character Elio from the film “Call Me By Your Name,” with a quote by the author, André Aciman, from the book it’s based on: “We are not written for one instrument alone; I am not, neither are you.” | Source: Facebook.com/CallMeByYourNameFilm

“I stopped for a second. If you remember everything, I wanted to say, and if you are really like me, then before you leave tomorrow, or when you’re just ready to shut the door of the taxi and have already said goodbye to everyone else and there’s not a thing left to say in this life, then, just this once, turn to me, even in jest, or as an afterthought, which would have meant everything to me when we were together, and, as you did back then, look me in the face, hold my gaze, and call me by your name” ― André Aciman, "Call Me by Your Name"

"Cor cordium, heart of hearts, I’ve never said anything truer in my life to anyone." ― André Aciman, "Call Me by Your Name"

“We belonged to each other, but had lived so far apart that we belonged to others now.” ― André Aciman, "Call Me by Your Name"

“We are not written for one instrument alone; I am not, neither are you.” ― André Aciman, "Call Me by Your Name"

Characters from the film “Call Me By Your Name,” with a quote by the author, André Aciman, from the book it’s based on: "Cor cordium, heart of hearts, I’ve never said anything truer in my life to anyone." | Source: Facebook.com/CallMeByYourNameFilm

“And on that evening when we grow older still we'll speak about these two young men as though they were two strangers we met on the train and whom we admire and want to help along. And we'll want to call it envy, because to call it regret would break our hearts.” ― André Aciman, "Call Me by Your Name"

“You'll kill me if you stop.” ― André Aciman, "Call Me by Your Name"

Call Me by Your Name Famous Quotes

“Time makes us sentimental. Perhaps, in the end, it is because of time that we suffer.” ― André Aciman, "Call Me by Your Name"

“Perhaps we were friends first and lovers second. But then perhaps this is what lovers are.” ― André Aciman, "Call Me by Your Name"

“We rip out so much of ourselves to be cured of things faster than we should that we go bankrupt by the age of thirty and have less to offer each time we start with someone new. But to feel nothing so as not to feel anything―what a waste!” ― André Aciman, "Call Me by Your Name"

The character Elio from the film “Call Me By Your Name,” with a quote by the author, André Aciman, from the book it’s based on: “Time makes us sentimental. Perhaps, in the end, it is because of time that we suffer.” | Source: Facebook.com/CallMeByYourNameFilm

"Wanting to test desire is nothing more than a ruse to get what we want without admitting that we want it." ― André Aciman, "Call Me by Your Name"

"All I was likely to discover at this point wasn't just how distant were the paths we'd taken, it was the measure of loss that was going to strike me―a loss I didn't mind thinking about in abstract terms but which would hurt when stared at in the face, the way nostalgia hurts long after we've stopped thinking of things we lost and may never have cared for.” ― André Aciman, "Call Me by Your Name"

“I suddenly realized that we were on borrowed time, that time is always borrowed, and that the lending agency exacts its premium precisely when we are least prepared to pay and need to borrow more...” ― André Aciman, "Call Me by Your Name"

“I may have come close, but I never had what you had. Something always held me back or stood in the way. How you live your life is your business. But remember, our hearts and our bodies are given to us only once.” ― André Aciman, "Call Me by Your Name"

“He came. He left. Nothing else had changed. I had not changed. The world hadn't changed. Yet nothing would be the same. All that remains is dream-making and strange remembrance.” ― André Aciman, "Call Me by Your Name"

Characters Elio and Oliver from the film “Call Me By Your Name,” with a quote by the author, André Aciman, from the book it’s based on: “Perhaps we were friends first and lovers second. But then perhaps this is what lovers are.” | Source: Facebook.com/CallMeByYourNameFilm

“Everyone goes through a period of Traviamento―when we take, say, a different turn in life, the other via. Dante himself did. Some recover, some pretend to recover, some never come back, some chicken out before even starting, and some, for fear of taking any turns, find themselves leading the wrong life all life long.” ― André Aciman, "Call Me by Your Name"

‘Call Me by Your Name’ Memorable Quotes

“Is it better to speak or die?” ― André Aciman, "Call Me by Your Name"

“Did I want him to act? Or would I prefer a lifetime of longing provided we both kept this little Ping-Pong game going: not knowing, not-not-knowing, not-not-not-knowing? Just be quiet, say nothing, and if you can't say 'yes,' don't say 'no,' say 'later.' Is this why people say 'maybe' when they mean 'yes,' but hope you'll think it's 'no' when all they really mean is…” ― André Aciman, "Call Me by Your Name"

"At one hundred, surely you learn to overcome loss and grief—or do they hound you till the bitter end?." ― André Aciman, "Call Me by Your Name"

The character Elio from the film “Call Me By Your Name,” with a quote by the author, André Aciman, from the book it’s based on: “Is it better to speak or die?” | Source: Facebook.com/CallMeByYourNameFilm

“Fear not. It will come. At least I hope it does. And when you least expect it. Nature has cunning ways of finding our weakest spot.” ― André Aciman, "Call Me by Your Name"

“Every time I go back to Rome, I go back to that one spot. It is still alive for me, still resounds with something totally present, as though a heart stolen from a tale by Poe still throbbed under the ancient slate pavement to remind me that, here, I had finally encountered the life that was right for me but had failed to have.” ― André Aciman, "Call Me by Your Name"

“Most of us can’t help but live as though we’ve got two lives to live, one is the mockup, the other the finished version, and then there are all those versions in between.” ― André Aciman, "Call Me by Your Name"

“But there's only one, and before you know it, your heart is worn out, and, as for your body, there comes a point when no one looks at it, much less wants to come near it. Right now there's sorrow. I don't envy the pain. But I envy you the pain.” ― André Aciman, "Call Me by Your Name"

"This was the best person I’d ever known in my life. I had chosen him well." ― André Aciman, "Call Me by Your Name"

The character Elio from the film “Call Me By Your Name,” with a quote by the author, André Aciman, from the book it’s based on: "At one hundred, surely you learn to overcome loss and grief—or do they hound you till the bitter end?" | Source: Facebook.com/CallMeByYourNameFilm

“Twenty years was yesterday, and yesterday was just earlier this morning, and morning seemed light-years away.” ― André Aciman, "Call Me by Your Name"

“...Maybe it was the truth, maybe I didn't want things to turn abstract, but I felt I should say it, because this was the moment to say it, because it suddenly dawned on me that this was why I had come, to tell him 'You are the only person I'd like to say goodbye to when I die, because only then will this thing I call my life make any sense. And if I should hear that you died, my life as I know it, the me who is speaking with you now, will cease to exist.'” ― André Aciman, "Call Me by Your Name"

“I reached for him and muffled my sobs against his shoulder. I was crying because no stranger had ever been so kind or gone so far for me….I was crying because I’d never known so much gratitude and there was no other way to show it.” ― André Aciman, "Call Me by Your Name"

Characters Elio and Oliver from the film “Call Me By Your Name,” with a quote by the author, André Aciman, from the book it’s based on: Nature has cunning ways of finding our weakest spot.” | Source: Facebook.com/CallMeByYourNameFilm

“They are embossed on every song that was a hit that summer, in every novel I read during and after his stay, on anything from the smell of rosemary on hot days to the frantic rattle of the cicadas in the afternoon—smells and sounds I’d grown up with and known every year of my life until then but that had suddenly turned on me and acquired an inflection forever colored by the events of that summer.” ― André Aciman, "Call Me by Your Name"

“If I could have him like this in my dreams every night of my life, I'd stake my entire life on dreams and be done with the rest.” ― André Aciman, "Call Me by Your Name"

“Over the years I'd lodged him in the permanent past, my pluperfect lover, put him on ice, stuffed him with memories and mothballs like a hunted ornament confabulating with the ghost of all my evenings. I'd dust him off from time to time and then put him back on the mantelpiece. He no longer belonged to earth or to life." ― André Aciman, "Call Me by Your Name"

The character Elio from the film “Call Me By Your Name,” with a quote by the author, André Aciman, from the book it’s based on: “Whatever happens between us, Elio, I just want you to know. Don’t ever say you didn’t know.” | Source: Facebook.com/CallMeByYourNameFilm

The book was adapted into a film by the same name, starring Timothée Chalamet as Elio and Armie Hammer as Oliver, with the applauded director Luca Guadagnino taking the reigns on what became a superbly well-done movie.

While the film has been revered, it was also highly controversial because of the apparent age gap between the two main characters, with debates raging from all sides on why or why not this was acceptable in the context of the story.

To read quotes from another revered film that turned into, in this case, a massively acclaimed film trilogy, read 39 Sam Quotes from 'The Lord of the Rings' — Brave, Wise, and Loyal Friend.