Quotes from Slavenka Drakuli?

Ah, kako ljudsko bi?e ?uva sebe, štedi sebe, uvijek sebe! Jer bol drugoga nije tvoja bol. Samo tvoja bol te boli, samo tvoja bol se ra?una.

No ?im se umiri i ponada da ?e utonuti u san, napadaju je sje?anja. U njoj se nakupimo tuge za nekoliko života. Prošlost je talog kojeg se ne uspijeva riješiti.

Zar je zaista povjerovao da bih napisala memoare? Je li papir dovoljno izdržljiv materijal da bih mu povjerila svoj žvot? Bojim se da bi se tinta razlila po njemu ili bi to bile suze. Nema tog papira, Alberte, koji bi izdržao moju bol.

During those few days and nights, pain had moved into S. as if into its own house. She felt occupied. A previously unknown illness had entered her and was now eating away at her. S. could not imagine that a man's body could do such damage to a woman, that it was so powerful, so unfairly overpowering that a woman had no defence against such force.

Prvi put u životu nekome sam dala dio sebe a da me to nije emocionalno uništilo. To je prekrasan osje?aj.

Perhaps to them and their peers their ecological consciousness is a bigger sign of prestige than a fur coat.

Bio je to zbunjuju?i osje?aj. Kad do?eš u novu sredinu pa se osjetiš okružen poznatim jezikom kao toplim kaputom, to ti daje osje?aj sigurnosti, zaštite.

The whole world was surprised by this war. We, the citizens of Yugoslavia, were even more surprised. When I think about it, I am still angry with myself. Is it possible that the war crept into our lives slowly, stealthily, like a thief? Why didn't we see it coming? Why didn't we do something to prevent it? Why were we so arrogant that we thought it could not happen to us? Were we really prisoners of a fairytale?

How could you forget something you never learned or had?!

Category of 'enemy' could spread to the whole nation

Vjerovala sam da ljubav može uskrsnuti i mrtve.

?itanje mi je bilo zanimljivo i zabavno jer me odvla?ilo iz mog svijeta u neki drugi, veseliji i jednostavniji.

Kako joj objasniti zatvoreni svijet u kojem živim, to da sam ja problem, uzrok nesre?e ljudi oko mene?

It was hard to force people to give up their rights to apartments, and predictably, this radical Utopian ideal failed. But it does illustrate how the concept of social injustice in a communist society works: those who have are exceptions, and they should feel guilty and ashamed - the others are entitled to have, too, because it has been promised to them.

Even at his age he knew that there are basically two categories of people in a society: those who have, and those who have not. But according to the egalitarian principles of any communist society, those 'haves' should share with the 'have nots.' And because there is not much to share anyway, in the end that egalitarianism boils down to the equal distribution of poverty.

Usamljenost je bila gora od boli, pomislila je, usamljenost u koju ju je bol zarobila i na koju je bila osu?ena ?itavog života.

Ništa ne objašnjavaj, kažem sama sebi, ljudi te ionako ne?e razumjeti, bilo zato što su glupi, bolo zato što im nije stalo, naj?eš?e ovo drugo.

If you asked a child riding a broomstick what it was doing, the child would answer, without hesitation: 'I am riding a horse.' For that child, a stick is a horse. It is as if by merely calling something by another name, you are able to transform it into what you want it to be. By usurping God's power, you create an illusion of an instant Paradise. And no one has yet told the infant Eastern Europe that a wooden stick is not a horse.

They were forced to vote for communists, as if communists needed voting for.

At the end, dear patient reader, I am aware that I started this long but necessary introduction in a light tone and ended up embroiled in politics, history, and identity - just like a typical East European intellectual - and I don't apologize for that.

Nobody would doubt for one moment that my husband is a rich foreigner - why in the world would I marry a poor one? My marriage also means that I have escaped the common destiny of my people: the war, poverty, insecurity, unemployment, disappointment, political confusion, low wages, and the feeling that time is running out fast and you can't be certain if the future will bring anything better.

I wonder — this feeling of insecurity, of vulnerability, of having the carpet pulled out from under one's feet, this fear in the face of the desired but unknown — is this the price that we have to pay to reach towards a future that is constantly escaping us?

Som nau?ená, že ke? sa ma ktosi spýta, ako sa mám, vždy odpoviem: ?akujem, dobre. ?udí nezaujíma, ako sa máš, hovorila mi mama.

I wish I could have written to you about something transparent and as light as the feeling that photograph of the empty room gives me, but then I'd be sending you something else -- that would be poetry. I realize that I only have words and that, from time to time, as I hold them in my arms I am less lonely.