Quotes from Svetlana Alexievich

Hatred, I think, is an organism that penetrates our skin in a mythic fashion and does not leave.

I have always grappled with the fact that the truth cannot be packaged into one soul or one mind alone. It is something fragmented: there is so much to it; the truth is varied and scattered across the world.

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 the debris of the 'Red Empire' slowly and tentatively.

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

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.

The purpose of art is to accumulate the human within the human being.

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.

I believe that in the 21st century, we should arm ourselves with ideas.

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

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

It's very important to listen when someone is speaking up. I always keep my ear to the ground.

I grew up in a village after the war, and in the village, there were almost only women.

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.

Every one of his characters has their own idea, their own thing they want to express. Dostoevsky just lets them do it.