Cities too probable to be real

"I have also thought of a model city from which I deduce all others," Marco answered. "It is a city made only of exceptions, exclusions, incongruities, contradictions. If such a city is the most improbable, by reducing the number of abnormal elements, we increase the probability that the city really exists. So I have only to subtract exceptions from my model, and in whatever direction I proceed, I will arrive at one of the cities which, always as an exception, exist. But I cannot force my operation beyond a certain limit: I would achieve cities too probable to be real." [69]

Calvino, Italo. Invisible Cities [Le città invisibili]. Translated by William Weaver. Harvest/Harcourt, 1974 [1972]. ISBN: 0156453800.