Quotes from Kapka Kassabova

It's precisely when you have lost your roots that everywhere you go matters hugely.

True, church murals in Bulgaria depict scenes where those who have taken cures from beautiful orisnitsi, or witches, are subjected to eccentric punishments in hell, such as having the Devil himself defecate on them, continuously. But to its credit, the Eastern Orthodox Church only condemned pagan practices in principle, not in practice.

There are two kinds of religious experience. Experiential, when you personally have an ecstatic or mystical experience. And canonical, when someone tells you what to think and believe, and you bleat in agreement, moving with a large herd. Ancient cultures were all about the former. And all the troubles of the world today come from the latter.

That year, I experienced a series of watershed tango events: my first tangasm, my first Tango Teacher Infatuation, and my first Tango Relationship.

sealed zinc coffins, like the fallen Russian soldiers in Afghanistan – so that no one would know how they had really died.

the most beautiful thing about tango is that it doesn't belong to anyone. It doesn't, but we'd like it to. We'd like to own it, each of us individually. We are all fiercely territorial about it. By being here despite the pain of it, we're saying: I'm holding my ground...

dancing with someone who is causing you pain is a bit like trying to smile while having a tooth extracted.

what exactly is there in human existence that can lure you away from pleasure: peace of mind, a walk by the sea, moderation?

History is written by the victors, they say, but it seems to me that history is written above all by those who weren't there, which may be the same thing.

Right now, my deep suspicion is that it's possible, perhaps even inevitable, to live between – no, among – nationalities. It's a bit like wearing different suits, all of them the wrong size, all of them slightly ridiculous, either too baggy or too tight. They don't make the right size anymore, it's been discontinued.

how can a good man be a lawyer in a dictatorship?

Were they happy years, do you think?' I ask Grégoire. 'Well, if I'm not happy now, I must have been happy then. When I was at the Lycée, I wanted to be in France, to be free, to be myself. Now that I'm in France, I wish I could come back here, to be at home again. I feel more connected with the past than with the present. Is that normal?' 'I don't know,' I say. 'Probably not. But at least you feel connected with something.

Socialist personality in German. In East Germany and the rest of the Soviet bloc, a prescribed set of attitudes and behaviours that confirmed you as politically correct. In theory, the socialist personality was a repository of moral rectitude and 'class consciousness'. In practice, it was an embodiment of that long-suffering creature Homo sovieticus, and effectively meant not having a face, a name, or a destiny, unless it was the right one.

If you are true, your words will be true. An untrue person cannot say true words.

All is one. Don't let me forget this, don't let the bastards divide me again. Our tragedy is fragmentation. It begins as a state of mind and ends up as destiny. It is the tragedy of our family of nations who hobble across this great peninsula, this exquisitely set Earth, like an army of blind soldiers a thousand years old looking for a place to rest. Let them rest. Forgive them, forgive me, forgive us. Our fear drove us insane and melancholy.