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Elena Gorokhova QUOTES

Elena Gorokhova QUOTES

1 " Along with all those who left their countries for other shores, I belong in neither land. We are unmoored and disconnected, like these poplar seeds blown into the crevices of the buildings, into the corners of the world. "

― Elena Gorokhova , Russian Tattoo: A Memoir

2 " The rules are simple: they lie to us, we know they're lying, they know we know they're lying, but they keep lying to us, and we keep pretending to believe them. "

― Elena Gorokhova , A Mountain of Crumbs

3 " A bunch of silly men chasing a ball" my mother says "give each one his own ball if they're so desperate to have one "

― Elena Gorokhova , A Mountain of Crumbs

4 " Look beyond that light,' says my father. 'Look hard and you'll see people filing into the theater. You'll see ushers run up and down the aisles; people talk, programs rustle-you'll hear a murmur. When the lights start to dim, the murmur rises, and then, just a moment before the curtain goes up, the noise stops-everyone in the house holds their breath, everyone knows what is going to happen. This is the moment I've always loved most:the anticipation of magic, the expectation of illusion. "

― Elena Gorokhova , A Mountain of Crumbs

5 " Don't let the magic slip away," he says, "or you'll sink into the quicksand of the ordinary. "

― Elena Gorokhova , A Mountain of Crumbs

6 " What's inside you no one can touch. "

― Elena Gorokhova , A Mountain of Crumbs

7 " I still know this place and its people to the marrow of their bones, to their soft, unguarded core, which had once sustained my own life, yet I am as much of an outsider here as I am on the other side of the world, in my adopted country. The truth is that there is no bridge between the two lives - the past and the present - that would conveniently span the memory of loss and the promise of an onward search. There is only a wound, the inner divide of exile. A daughter of an anatomy professor, I should have known that sliced hearts do not become whole, that split souls do not mend. Along with all those who left their countries for other shores, I belong in neither land. "

― Elena Gorokhova , Russian Tattoo: A Memoir

8 " If I believed in God, like Raphael or Michelangelo, I would have cursed God. In the absence of God, I cursed my motherland. It was "

― Elena Gorokhova , A Train to Moscow

9 " In this life It’s not difficult to die. To make life Is more difficult by far. "

― Elena Gorokhova , A Train to Moscow

10 " Vsyo budet khorosho, "

― Elena Gorokhova , A Train to Moscow

11 " This is the unbound time, the disconnected time, time that has lost its meaning, time where no time exists. "

― Elena Gorokhova , A Train to Moscow

12 " I thought of those in the stratosphere of the Kremlin, dressed in generals’ uniforms and party suits, puffing on pipes at their desks, debating the fate of our lives between sips of cognac, issuing search warrants, signing decrees of death. "

― Elena Gorokhova , A Train to Moscow

13 " Isn’t it ironic,” says Andrei, “that the executioner becomes the victim, and the victim becomes the executioner? Our system, if you think of it, is pure genius: executioners and victims are the same people. The engine of death has been in motion for decades, and no one is guilty, because everyone is guilty. "

― Elena Gorokhova , A Train to Moscow

14 " But there is one thing my father-in-law told me about choices that has always stayed with me: you either pull the trigger, or you kneel on the floor. "

― Elena Gorokhova , A Train to Moscow

15 " You were born in the wrong country, Sashenka. You’re naive and uncompromising. You don’t bend, and sooner or later, our motherland will break you. It breaks everyone. "

― Elena Gorokhova , A Train to Moscow

16 " Cut yourself free of what you love and hope that the wound heals. —J. "

― Elena Gorokhova , Russian Tattoo: A Memoir

17 " Let’s part tonight and end this madness. "

― Elena Gorokhova , A Train to Moscow

18 " All will be well,” she’ll say, healing her with the warmth of her embrace, and this time, despite her stubbornness and doubt, Sasha will believe her. "

― Elena Gorokhova , A Train to Moscow

19 " with fresh arms and legs and newly shaved heads mobilized from republic capitals and small villages, from factory towns and collective farms, dressed in new uniforms and thrown into the foul cauldron of new battles. "

― Elena Gorokhova , A Train to Moscow

20 " There is no doubt in her mind that Kolya knew about the life of make-believe, the life of art. "

― Elena Gorokhova , A Train to Moscow