“If you are afraid of wolves, keep out of the woods. - J. V. Stalin, 1936”

“Death solves all problems - no man, no problem. - J. V. Stalin, 1918”

“To choose one's victims, to prepare one's plans minutely, to slake an implacable vengeance, and then to go to bed ... there is nothing sweeter in the world. - J. V. Stalin”

“Gratitude", he said, quoting Stalin, "is a dog's disease.”

“To be brave, by definition, one has first to be afraid.”

“He glanced around the reading room and closed his eyes, trying to keep hold of the past for a minute longer, a fattening and hungover middle-aged historian in a black corduroy suit.”

“I sense that I am dawdling in this narrative, having already reached my eighth roll of Hieratica, and need to speed it up a little, else either I shall die on the job, or you will be worn out reading.”