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" I can't rid myself of the feeling that war is a product of the male nature. "

Svetlana Alexievich

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" The books that I'm writing, you can write them only when you're amongst your people. You're not going to find it on the Internet. You're not going to hear it there. "

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" A man without a memory is only capable of doing evil, nothing else but evil. "

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" Nothing, not even human life, is more precious to us than our myths about ourselves. "

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" The subjects I wanted to write about - the mystery of the human soul, evil - didn't interest newspapers, and news reporting bored me. "

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" I've known since I was five that I wanted to be a writer. "

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" I have three homes: my Belarusian land, the homeland of my father, where I have lived my whole life; Ukraine, the homeland of my mother, where I was born; and Russia's great culture, without which I cannot imagine myself. All are very dear to me. "

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" I always aim to understand how much humanity is contained in each human being and how I can protect this humanity in a person. "

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" Love is what brings us into this world. "

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" My Ukrainian grandmother would tell amazing stories. She lost her father, and as children, we would always listen to her stories. "

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" What you have to remember about Belarus is that it's a small state - it has a population of less than 10m people - and like many small states, it has to be very careful about its relationships. "

Svetlana Alexievich

" I see the world as voices, as colors, as it were. From book to book, I change, the subjects change, but the narrative thread remains the same. "

Svetlana Alexievich

" Ten to 15 of my childhood friends from Minsk died of cancer. Chernobyl kills. "

Svetlana Alexievich

" I don't think we should be deceived that art is such a moral thing. "

Svetlana Alexievich

" I love the lone human voice. It is my greatest love and passion. "

Svetlana Alexievich

" I was always meant to study the humanities; I was no good at math or sciences. When it came time for me to work, it was Soviet times, and journalism wasn't that free or interesting of a space. There was a lot of censorship; it was difficult. "

Svetlana Alexievich

" There is this tradition, stretching back to Tacitus and Plutarch, that history belongs to the heroes, the emperors. But I grew up among simple people, and their stories just shattered me. It was painful that no one but me was listening to them. "

Svetlana Alexievich

" Reality has always attracted me like a magnet; it tortured and hypnotized me. I wanted to capture it on paper. "

Svetlana Alexievich

" Stalin's machine can be started up again at only a moment's notice: the same informers, the same denunciations, the same tortures. The same universal, all-devouring terror. "

Svetlana Alexievich

" I used to live in a village, and I always loved listening to old people. Unfortunately, it was always women who were talking, because after the war, very few men were around. I spent my entire life living in the village. The village is always talking about itself; people are talking to each other as the village makes sense of itself. "

Svetlana Alexievich

" I don't want to be like other authors and say that there are only a few story lines in literature. A story is like a human face. We have as many stories as human faces. You might have similar facial features, but they're all a little different. "

Svetlana Alexievich

" I have collected the history of 'domestic,' 'indoor' socialism, bit by bit. The history of how it played out in the human soul. I am drawn to that small space called a human being... a single individual. In reality, that is where everything happens. "

Svetlana Alexievich

" Flaubert called himself a human pen; I would say that I am a human ear. When I walk down the street and catch words, phrases, and exclamations, I always think - how many novels disappear without a trace! Disappear into darkness. "

Svetlana Alexievich

" 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

" I do not remember any questions in my childhood other than questions about death and about loss, and it was clear that the books that filled the house were not as interesting as the conversations outside. "

Svetlana Alexievich

" You might say that my work is just simply lying on the ground, and I go and I gather it, and I pick it up, and I put it together. "

Svetlana Alexievich

" Many times, I have been shocked and frightened by human beings. I have experienced delight and revulsion. I have sometimes wanted to forget what I heard, to return to a time when I lived in ignorance. More than once, however, I have seen the sublime in people and wanted to cry. "

Svetlana Alexievich

" Women are the most denigrated social group in the Soviet Union. The idea of women's emancipation is only a slogan in - but also, I should say, in many places outside - the Soviet Union. But especially in the militaristic Soviet society, people only thought of life in terms of struggle and the workers' toil. "

Svetlana Alexievich

" I write my books at moments of shock. I meet people in extremis and their stories are highly emotionally charged. "

Svetlana Alexievich

" From the point of view of art, the butcher and the victim are equal as people. You need to see the people. "

Svetlana Alexievich

" I take a very long time to write my books - from five to ten years. "

Svetlana Alexievich