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you can survive without bread, but without love you're dead -- Svetlana Alexievich
People always want to live, even during wartime. You'll learn a lot from living through a war...There is no beast worse than man. -- Svetlana Alexievich
Chernobyl is a theme worthy of Dostoevsky, an attempt to justify mankind. -- Svetlana Alexievich
How can we preserve our planet on which little girls are supposed to sleep in their beds, and not lie dead on the road with unplaited pigtails? And so that childhood would never again be called war-time childhood. -- Svetlana Alexievich
So...Well...Life went by...The only thing money can't buy is time. Weep before God or not, you can't buy it. That's just the way it is. -- Svetlana Alexievich
When I see a garden in flower, then I believe in God for a second. But not the rest of the time -- Svetlana Alexievich
I hear about death so often that I don't even notice anymore. Have you ever heard kids talk about death? My seventh-graders argue about it: is it scary or not? Kids used to ask: where do we come from? How are babies made? Now they're worried about what'll happen after the nuclear war. -- Svetlana Alexievich
I remembered some lines from the papers: our nuclear stations are absolutely safe, we could build one on Red Square, they're safer than samovars. They're like stars and we'll "light" the whole earth with them. -- Svetlana Alexievich
At that time my notions of nuclear power were utterly idyllic. At school and at the university we'd been taught that this was a magical factory that made "energy out of nothing," where people in white robes sat and pushed buttons. Chernobyl blew up when we weren't prepared. -- Svetlana Alexievich
You're all like black boxes here," he said. He meant the black boxes that record information on airplanes. We think that we're living, talking, walking, eating. Loving one another. But we're just recording information! -- Svetlana Alexievich
often thought that the simple fact, the mechanical fact, is no closer to the truth than a vague feeling, rumor, vision. Why repeat the facts - they cover up our feelings. -- Svetlana Alexievich
Pretty soon, I'll be decomposing into phosphorous, calcium, and so on. Who else will you find to tell you the truth? All that's left are the archives. Pieces of paper. And the truth is... I worked at an archive myself, I can tell you first hand: paper lies even more than people do. -- Svetlana Alexievich
The only righteous thing on the face of the earth is death. No one has ever bribed their way out of that. The earth takes us all: the good, the evil and the sinners. And that's all the justice you'll find in this world. -- Svetlana Alexievich
remember my father's words: "It's possible to survive the camps, but you can't survive other people." He -- Svetlana Alexievich
Chernobyl, while an accident in the sense that no one intentionally set it off, was also the deliberate product of a culture of cronyism, laziness, and a deep-seated indifference toward the general population. -- Svetlana Alexievich
We share a communist collective memory. We're neighbors in memory. -- Svetlana Alexievich
Instead of a Motherland, we live in a huge supermarket. If this is freedom, I don't need it. To hell with it! -- Svetlana Alexievich
Chernobyl is like the war of all wars. There's nowhere to hide. Not underground, not underwater, not in the air. -- Svetlana Alexievich
We were told that we had to win. Against whom? The atom? Physics? The universe? Victory is not an event for us, but a process. -- Svetlana Alexievich
Come get your apples! Chernobyl apples!' Someone told her not to advertise that, no one will buy them. 'Don't worry!' she says. 'They buy them anyway. Some need them for their mother-in-law, some for their boss. -- Svetlana Alexievich
People ask me: "Why don't you take photos in color? In color!" But Chernobyl: literally it means black event. There are no other colors there. -- Svetlana Alexievich
Is there anything more frightening than people? -- Svetlana Alexievich
The doctors said that I got sick because my father worked at Chernobyl. And after that I was born. I love my father. -- Svetlana Alexievich
Show me a fantasy novel about Chernobyl--there isn't one! Because reality is more fantastic. -- Svetlana Alexievich
I want to bear witness: my daughter died from Chernobyl. And they want us to forget about it. Nikolai Fomich Kalugin, father -- Svetlana Alexievich
At first we were all turned into animals. The very word "Chernobyl" is like a signal. Everyone turns their head to look at you. He's from there! That -- Svetlana Alexievich
The war - that's the only thing I can talk about. Why did we come here? To Chernobyl? Because no one's going to chase us out of here. No one will kick us off this land. It's not anyone's land now. -- Svetlana Alexievich
I'm a product of my time. I'm not a criminal. -- Svetlana Alexievich
Life was full of adventure: I learnt the smell of danger - I've got a sixth sense for it now. We're homesick for it, some of us; it's called the 'Afghan syndrome'. -- Svetlana Alexievich
At first, the question was, Who's to blame? But then, when we learned more, we started thinking, What should we do? -- Svetlana Alexievich
Instead of lullabies, my mother would sing us songs of the Revolution. Now she sings them to her grandchildren. 'Are you nuts?' I ask her. She replies, 'I don't know any other songs. -- Svetlana Alexievich
It turned out the officer was escorting the soldier home. He'd gone mad: 'He's been digging ever since we left Kabul. -- Svetlana Alexievich
Twice a week we attended a political 'seminar', where we were continually told that we were doing our sacred duty to help make the border totally secure. -- Svetlana Alexievich
Do you know that it can be a sin to give birth? I'd never heard those words before. Katya -- Svetlana Alexievich
That's how it was in the beginning. We didn't just lose a town, we lost our whole lives. -- Svetlana Alexievich
We're going to die, we're going to die. By the year 2000, there won't be any Belarussians left." My daughter was six years old. I'm putting her to bed, and she whispers in my ear: "Daddy, I want to live, I'm still little." And I had thought she didn't understand anything. Can -- Svetlana Alexievich
A soldier must be like a bullet, constantly ready to be fired.' I learnt that by heart. You go to war in order to kill. Killing is my profession - that's what I was trained to do. -- Svetlana Alexievich
Where are we going to get tens of thousands of dollars if my husband makes 120 dollars a month? One professor told us quietly: "With her pathologies, your child is of great interest to science. You should write to hospitals in other countries. They should be interested. -- Svetlana Alexievich
Fear is more human than bravery, you're scared and you're sorry, at least for yourself, but you force your fear back into your subconscious. -- Svetlana Alexievich
isn't a hair, you can't just pull it out. And no ritual can make it stick. Why cry over it? Who -- Svetlana Alexievich
People aren't heroes. We're all - peddlers of the apocalypse. Big and small. I have these images in my mind, these pictures. -- Svetlana Alexievich
They were told they were on a holy mission and that their country would remember them. Now people turn away and try to forget the war, especially those who sent us there in the first place. -- Svetlana Alexievich
And yet we went on being surprised that they didn't love us. They'd come to our hospitals. We'd give a woman some medicine but she wouldn't look at us, and certainly never give us a smile. -- Svetlana Alexievich
One of the poets says somewhere that animals are a different people. I killed them by the ten, by the hundred, thousand, not even knowing what they were called. I destroyed their houses, their secrets. And buried them. Buried them. Leonid -- Svetlana Alexievich
The mysterious Russian soul... Everyone wants to understand it. They read Dostoevsky: what's behind that soul of theirs? Well, behind our soul there's just more soul. -- Svetlana Alexievich
According to Darwin's theory, it's not the strongest who survive, but those who are the best adapted to their environment. Average people are the ones who survive and carry on the human race. -- Svetlana Alexievich
You're young. Why are you doing this? That's not a person anymore, that's a nuclear reactor. You'll just burn together." I was like a dog, running after them. I'd stand for hours at their doors, begging and pleading. And then they'd say: "All right! The hell with you! You're not normal! -- Svetlana Alexievich
What would I have been if not for perestroika? An engineer with a pathetic salary. -- Svetlana Alexievich
Our people need freedom like a monkey needs glasses. No one would know what to do with it. -- Svetlana Alexievich
Well, I admit it. I had the greatest respect for the Afghan people, even while I was shooting and killing them. I still do. You could even say I love them. I like their songs and prayers, as peaceful and timeless as their mountains. -- Svetlana Alexievich
They die, but no one's really asked us. No one's asked what we've been through. What we saw. No one wants to hear about death. About what scares them. But I was telling you about love. About my love . . . Lyudmilla -- Svetlana Alexievich
Russian novels don't teach you how to become successful. -- Svetlana Alexievich
According to Abkhazian custom, the time you spend with guests around the table doesn't count toward your lifespan because you're drinking wine and enjoying yourself. -- Svetlana Alexievich
We'll die, and then we'll become science, -- Svetlana Alexievich
Death is the fairest thing in the world. No one's ever gotten out of it. The earth takes everyone - the kind, the cruel, the sinners. Aside from that, there's no fairness on earth. -- Svetlana Alexievich
How were you taken prisoner?' The interrogator asked my father. 'The Finns pulled me out of a lake.' 'You traitor! You were saving your own skin instead of the Motherland.' My father also considered himself guilty. That's how they'd been trained. -- Svetlana Alexievich
The most important thing is spiritual labor...Books...You can wear the same suit for twenty years, two coats are enough for a lifetime, but you can't live without Pushkin or the complete works of Gorky. -- Svetlana Alexievich
People are constantly forced to choose between having freedom and having success and stability; freedom with suffering or happiness without freedom. The majority choose the latter. -- Svetlana Alexievich
My life has always been like a change jar. It's full, then it's empty, then it's full again, then it's empty again. -- Svetlana Alexievich
I'm afraid of freedom, it feels like some drunk guy could show up and burn my dacha at any moment. -- Svetlana Alexievich
Any little knot, that was already a wound on him. I clipped my nails down till they bled so I wouldn't accidentally cut him. None of the nurses could approach him; if they needed anything they'd call me. And -- Svetlana Alexievich
truths. History is concerned solely with the facts; emotions are outside of its realm of interest. In fact, it's considered improper to admit feelings into history. But I look at the world as a writer and not a historian. I am fascinated by people. -- Svetlana Alexievich
They call the souls down from heaven. Those who had people die this year cry, and those whose people died earlier, don't. They talk, they remember. Everyone prays. And those who don't know how to pray, also pray. -- Svetlana Alexievich
still remember the way a twenty-year-old shouted, 'I don't want to hear about any political mistakes! I just don't want to! Give me my two legs back if it was all a mistake. -- Svetlana Alexievich
Back then everyone was saying: "We're going to die, we're going to die. By the year 2000, there won't be any Belarussians left. -- Svetlana Alexievich
I don't like the word "hero." There are no heroes in war. As soon as someone picks up a weapon, they can no longer be good. They won't be able to. -- Svetlana Alexievich
A bottle of vodka costs as much as a coat used to. And something to snack on? Half a kilo of salami is half a month's pension. -- Svetlana Alexievich
Everyone thought of themselves as a victim, never a willing accomplice. One -- Svetlana Alexievich
We don't need anything. Just listen to us and try to understand. Society is good at doing things, 'giving' medical help, pensions, flats. But all this so-called giving has been paid for in very expensive currency. Our blood. -- Svetlana Alexievich
Question: Is the world as it's depicted in words the real world? Words stand between the person and his soul. And -- Svetlana Alexievich
There's something immoral, voyeuristic, about peering too closely at a person's courage in the face of danger. -- Svetlana Alexievich
The soul will fly home of its own accord, but shipping a coffin is pretty expensive. -- Svetlana Alexievich
Seventy-plus years in the Marxist-Leninist laboratory gave rise to a new man: Homo sovieticus. Some see -- Svetlana Alexievich
They, our parents, lived through a great catastrophe, and we needed to live through it, too. Otherwise we'd never become real people. That's how we're made. If we just work each day and eat well - that would be strange and intolerable! We -- Svetlana Alexievich
Russian can't convince another Russian of anything without obscenities. I -- Svetlana Alexievich
Why is it that seventeenand eighteen-year-olds find it easier to kill than thirty-year-olds, for example? Because they have no pity, that's why. -- Svetlana Alexievich
After I got back I couldn't bear to wear my 'pre-war' jeans and shirts. They belonged to some stranger, although they still smelt of me, as my mother assured me. That stranger no longer exists. -- Svetlana Alexievich
Yur Karyakin once wrote: 'We should not judge a man's life by his perception of himself. Such a perception may be tragically inadequate.' And I read something in Kafka to the effect that man was irretrievably lost within himself. -- Svetlana Alexievich
records the lives of ideas. People don't write it, time does. Human truth is just a nail that everybody hangs their hats on. -- Svetlana Alexievich
I know full well what it means to dream. My whole childhood, I begged for a bicycle, and I never did get one. -- Svetlana Alexievich
Humanities" started sounding like a disease -- Svetlana Alexievich
I accepted the official line so completely that even now, after all I've read and heard, I still have a minute hope that our lives weren't entirely wasted. It's the self-preservation instinct at work. -- Svetlana Alexievich
These people had already seen what for everyone else is still unknown. I felt like I was recording the future. Svetlana -- Svetlana Alexievich
I'm not afraid of God. I'm afraid of man. -- Svetlana Alexievich
For our entire history, we'd been surviving instead of living. Today, -- Svetlana Alexievich
can do without a lot of things, the only thing I can't do without is the past. [ -- Svetlana Alexievich
When you're part of a mob, the mob is a monster. A person in a mob is nothing like the person you sit and chat with in the kitchen. Drinking -- Svetlana Alexievich
Truth is communal. -- Svetlana Alexievich
No one knows what's in the other world. It's better here. More familiar. -- Svetlana Alexievich
repentance, the response would be, "What do I have to repent for?" Everyone thought of -- Svetlana Alexievich
No one had taught us what freedom means. We'd only ever learned how to die for freedom. -- Svetlana Alexievich
Man lives with death, but he doesn't understand what it is. -- Svetlana Alexievich
