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Quote by Svetlana Alexievich

“They wash the windows, the roof, the door, all of it. Then a crane drags the house from its spot and puts it down into the pit. There's dolls and books and cans all scattered around. The excavator picks them up. Then it covers everything with sand and clay, leveling it. And then instead of a village, you have an empty field. They sowed our land with corn. Our house is lying there, and our school and our village council office. My plants are there and two albums of stamps, I was hoping to bring them with me. Also I had a bike.”

Quote by Svetlana Alexievich

Book:Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster

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Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster

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Svetlana Alexievich

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“Life is not a competition, but a path of grace. Hasten not the quiet hours, for in them the heart finds peace.”

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Book:The Light in the Heart

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“We started thinking about it -- I guess it must have been -- three years later. One of the guys got sick, then another. Someone died. Another went insane and killed himself. That's when we started thinking. But we'll only really understand in about 20-30 years. For me, Afghanistan (I was there two years) and then Chernobyl (I was there three months), are the most memorable moments of my life.”

Book:Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster

Source: Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster

“I was in Afghanistan too. It was easier there. They just shot you.”

Book:Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster

Source: Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster

“We're lonely. We're strangers here. They even bury us separately, not like they do other people. It's like we're aliens from outer space. I'd have been better off dying in Afghanistan. Honest, I get thoughts like that. In Afghanistan death was a normal thing. You could understand it there.”

Book:Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster

Source: Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster

“Victory is not an event for us, but a process. Life is a struggle. An overcoming. That's why we have this love of floods and fires and other catastrophes. We need an opportunity to demonstrate our "courage and heroism.”

Book:Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster

Source: Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster

“Okay, maybe you could move the ones that were above the earth, but what about the ones who were in the earth -- the bugs and the worms? And the ones in the sky? How do you evacuate a pigeon or a sparrow? What do you do with them? We don't have any way of giving them, the necessary information. It's also a philosophical dilemma. A perestroika of our feelings is happening here.”

Book:Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster

Source: Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster

“There's one diagnosis for everything -- Chernobyl. No matter what happens, everyone says: Chernobyl. People get mad at us: "You're sick because you're afraid. You're sick from fear. Radiophobia." But then why do little kids get sick and die? They don't know fear, they don't understand it yet.”

Book:Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster

Source: Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster

“You felt sorry for everyone there. Even the flies, even the pigeons. Everyone should be able to live. The flies should be able to fly, and the wasps, the cockroaches should be able to crawl. You don't even want to hurt a cockroach.”

Book:Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster

Source: Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster

“We had lead underwear, we wore it over our pants. Write that. We had good jokes, too. Here's one: An American robot is on the roof for five minutes, and then it breaks down. The Japanese robot is on the roof for five minutes, , and then -- breaks down. The Russian robot is up there two hours! Then a command comes in over the loudspeaker: "Private Ivanov! In two hours you're welcome to come down and have a cigarette break." Ha-Ha! [laughs.]”

Book:Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster

Source: Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster