“imagine a world, however, where coin tosses could not be repeated and there was no way of knowing weather a particular coin toss involved either a scrupulously fair coin, or one that was double-header, or double-tailed. this would represent a world that was more than just risky, it would be deeply uncertain. imagine that all decisions in this world were governed by this fundamentally uncertain coin tosses, on an entirely random basis. some people may do very well, where as others may fail very badly indeed. both the winners and the losers might then be tempted to form their own narratives to explain their successes and failures, the winners extolling their imaginary skills, the losers blaming the winners for their imaginary exploitation.”
Source: Grave New World: The End of Globalization, the Return of History
“Rise, because you believed. Climb, because you dared.”
Source: Klassik Era: The Genesis
“They asked all sorts of questions, but one really cut into my memory. This boy, stammering and blushing, you could tell he was one of the quiet ones, asked: "Why couldn't anyone help the animals?" This was already a person from the future. I couldn't answer that question. Our art is all about the sufferings and loves of people, but not of everything living. We don't descend to their level: animals, plants, that other world. And with Chernobyl man just waved his hand at everything.”
Source: Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster
“The Soviets had to choose whether to show Blix the toilet facilities and hide the super-secret radar or vice versa.”
Source: Chernobyl: The History of a Nuclear Catastrophe
“Even if it's poisoned with radiation, it's still my home. There's no place else they need us. Even a bird loves its nest.”
Source: Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster
“A life well lived is not measured by what you possess, but by how you live and love.”
Source: The Light in the Heart
“You were sixteen when Chernobyl went up, Ollie.”
Sangster recalled the incident. “Yes, and there was nothing I could have done to prevent it, just as the other disasters I saw. I see the incidents just hours before they occur and are helpless to prevent it, as the details are usually too vague. No, Rachel, at least consoling the living does not warrant a spell in a straitjacket.”
Source: Whispers of the Dead
“We came home. I took off all the clothes that I'd worn there and threw them down the trash chute. I gave my cap to my little son. he really wanted it. And he wore it all the time. Two years later they gave him a diagnosis: a tumor in his brain...You can write the rest of this yourself. I don't want to talk anymore.”
Source: Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster
“At night I wake up from my mother saying, "Sonny, why aren't you saying anything? You're not asleep, you're lying there with your eyes open. And your light's on." I don't say anything. No one can speak to me in a way I can answer. In my own language. No one can understand where I've come back from. And I can't tell anyone.”
Source: Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster
“I've wondered why everyone was silent about Chernobyl, why our writers weren't writing much about it -- they write about the war, or the camps, but here they're silent. Why? Do you think it's an accident? If we'd beaten Chernobyl, people would talk about it and write about it more. Or if we'd understood Chernobyl. But we don't know how to capture any meaning from it. We're not capable of it. We can't place it in our human experience or our human time-frame. So what's better, to remember or to forget?”
Source: Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster