“Why didn't we put Stalin on trial? I'll tell you why...In order to condemn Stalin, you'd have to condemn your friends and relatives along with him. The people closest to you...our neighbor Yuri turned out to have been the one… — Svetlana Alexievich Copy Share Image
Real people speak in my books about the main events of the age, such as the war, the Chernobyl disaster, and the downfall of… — Svetlana Alexievich Copy Share
In the post-Soviet era, instead of freedom, various stripes of autocratic-totalitarianism have flourished: Russian, Belarusian, Kazakh... We are finding our way out from under… — Svetlana Alexievich Copy Share
“How can we preserve our planet on which little girls are supposed to sleep in their beds, and not lie dead on the road… — Svetlana Alexievich Copy Share
I write my books at moments of shock. I meet people in extremis and their stories are highly emotionally charged. — Svetlana Alexievich Copy Share
Women tell things in more interesting ways. They live with more feeling. They observe themselves and their lives. Men are more impressed with action.… — Svetlana Alexievich Copy Share
Many times, I have been shocked and frightened by human beings. I have experienced delight and revulsion. I have sometimes wanted to forget what… — Svetlana Alexievich Copy Share
No book about Soviet sacrifice was as strong as the women's stories I heard as a child. — Svetlana Alexievich Copy Share
I see the world as voices, as colors, as it were. From book to book, I change, the subjects change, but the narrative thread… — Svetlana Alexievich Copy Share
We thought we'd leave communism behind, and everything would turn out fine. But it turns out you can't leave this and become free, because… — Svetlana Alexievich Copy Share
A man without a memory is only capable of doing evil, nothing else but evil. — Svetlana Alexievich Copy Share
When people talk, it matters how they place words next to each other. — Svetlana Alexievich Copy Share
“The Germans rolled back, and a wounded lieutenant, the artillerist Kostia Khudov, was left in no-man’s-land. The orderlies who tried to bring him back… — Svetlana Alexievich Copy Share
What I'm concerned with is what I would call the missing history - the invisible imprint of our stay on Earth and in time. — Svetlana Alexievich Copy Share
