In general it can be said that a nation's art is greatest when it most reflects the character of its people.
The problems I had existed before I did, and I discovered them.
Only happy people have nightmares, from overeating. For those who live a nightmare reality, sleep is a black hole, lost in time, like death.
A day came when I should have died, and after that nothing seemed very important. So I have stayed as I am, without regret, separated from the normal human condition.
I had often thought that if I managed to live through the war I wouldn't expect too much of life. How could one resent disappointment in love if life itself was continuously in doubt? Since Belgorod, terror had overturned all my preconceptions, and the pace of life had been so intense one no longer knew what elements of ordinary life to abandon in order to maintain some semblance of balance. I was still unresigned to the idea of death, but I had already sworn to myself during moments of intense fear that I would exchange anything - fortune, love, even a limb - if I could simply survive.
War always reaches the depths of horror because of idiots who perpetuate terror from generation to generation under the pretext of vengeance.
I have used the words and expressions which my experiences from Minsk to Kharkov to the Don suggested to me. But I should have reserved those words and expressions for what came later, even though they are not strong enough. It is a mistake to use intense words without carefully weighing and measuring them, or they will have already been used when one needs them later. It's a mistake, for instance, to used the word frightful to describe a few broken up companions mixed into the ground: but it's a mistake that might be forgiven.
Those who praise victory relish manslaughter. Those who relish manslaughter cannot reach their goals in the world.
There is no man in this world without some manner of tribulation or anguish, though he be king or pope.
I think good theaters are really important. They allow you to exist in a space with other people.
The militant Muslim is the person who beheads the infidel, while the moderate Muslim holds the feet of the victim.