Varlam Shalamov

“Life repeats Shakespearian themes more often than we think. Did Lady Macbeth, Richard III, and King Claudius exist only in the Middle Ages? Shylock wanted to cut a pound of flesh from the body of the merchant of Venice. Is that a fairy tale?”

“A human being survives by his ability to forget. Memory is always ready to blot out the bad and retain only the good.”

“Tragedy is not deep and sharp if it can be shared with friend.”

“We realized that life, even the worst of life, consists of an alternation of joys and sorrow, successes and failure more than the successes.”

“There is a much that a man should not see, should not know, and if he should see it, it is better for him to die.”

“I remember the old northern legend of how God created the taiga while he was still a child. There were few colors, but they were childishly fresh and vivid, and their subjects were simple. Later, when God grew up and became an adult, he learned to cut out complicated patters from his pages and created many bright birds. God grew bored with his former child's world and he threw snow on his forest creation and went south forever.”