“Those are gladioli,Josef Vissarionovich.The lower buds open before the tops.But it's better when they blossom at the same time.So the lower ones are wrapped in black paper,to keep them from blooming until the top ones do.”

“The golden stock of the Russian Revolution.' Where is this golden stock today? These people have come to replace them. From the top to the bottom.They are offering up Russia,they driving people to their deaths.Sasha remembered:Panait Istrati had called those who had opposed and fought against Stalin in the 1920s and who were annihilated by him in the 1930s 'the golden stock of the Russian Revolution”

“And Eisenstein was doing it,too!As a young boy Sasha had seen his Battleship Potemkin in the Khudoshestvennyi Theater on the Arbat Sqaure.The cashiers,ticket-takers,cloak room attendants, all were dressed in sailors' uniforms;it looked just grand,it set the mood.The world had acknowledged BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN as the best film and Eisenstein as the greatest director.Now the 'greatest' was loyally serving the tyrant and executioner.Here was an example for his argument with Gleb about genius and villainy. Gleb also read the paper and gave Sasha a meaningful glance. 'Well then one more sycophant.”

“...Alexei Tolstoy,Leonov, and Zoshenko had demanded that Tukhachevsky be shot. Pasternak ought to be added to them.Yes,even Pasternak couldn't stand the pressure.Vadim trembled with joy when he saw his name among the rest.."Tell me dear what millennium is it outside? This one!Everyone signed--Vsevolod Vishnevsky,Vasily Grossman,Tynyanov,Paustovsky,Konstantin Simonov,Antokolsky,Fedin,Sholokhov,Fadeyev,Tikhonov,all of them...Is that considered the normal order of things?”

“Byelorussian songs, if you've ever heard them are slightly monotonous, even mournful yet they do have a certain melancholy charm and compassion about them.”

“I think a man can either believe in God or not believe, he can get faith and he can lose it but there is only one God for the true believer, and that is the one he carries in his heart.”

“One thing is sure:the idea that each nation is racially pure is a myth, especially a nation with a history of four thousand years.”