“[In Georgia] A cheerful anarchy reigned.”
Source: Among the Russians: Vivid and Poetic Travel Writing on a 10,000-Mile Journey Through Late Soviet Culture and History
“Every soldier who fought put on a uniform and gave up two, three, four years of his life. He worked, he fought, sometimes he bled. Sometimes he lost a limb-but above all, he gave America those years of his life. And America said, "We won't forget you." That's simple justice. Now they're back. Most veterans are bitter men because the simple things they ask-a home, a job, security-they cannot have. But what, I ask, is it like to be a Negro veteran?
You fought, if you are a Negro veteran, to tear down the sign "No Jews Allowed" in Germany, to find in America the sign "No Negroes Allowed." You fought to wipe out the noose and the whip in Germany and Japan, to find the noose and the whip in Georgia and Louisiana.”
Source: Why I Left America and Other Essays
“One of the women was a blonde from Eastern Europe who wore sweaters interwoven with gold. She had the loveliest uniform out of all of us, a tunic with a cinched waist and diagonally arranged buttons. Her mascaraed eyelashes curled upwards and her contact lenses gave her blue eyes a shimmering sparkle. Glamour Puss had come here for a break from the adolescent brood eating her out of house and home, and maybe also because of her own worn-out feet. She'd gone through three pregnancies in her high heels. She originally came from Georgia but had been living in a town in the Erzgebirge Mountains for years.”
Source: Marzahn, mon amour: Geschichten einer Fußpflegerin
“The primeval home of every shy and ticklish, tentacle-waving form of sea life and mud life, the coastal Georgia salt marsh is one of the Earth's rare and moist sunny places where life likes to experiment. Because it is flushed out twice daily by the systole of saltwater tide and diastole of alluvial tide, the marsh looks new, as if still wet from creation.”
Source: Praying for Sheetrock: A Work of Nonfiction
“Thanks for having GA on your mind...”
“А позаяк усі вони вважали себе націоналістами, то ніколи не пили водку, а тільки чачу, щоб ніхто не запідозрив їх у симпатії до Росії.”
Source: The Eighth Life
“Що гірші часи — то краще ведеться кондитерським.”
Source: The Eighth Life
“Putin wants to resurrect the USSR or something similar, with him front and centre. He resents us cosying up to the West, doesn't want us in the EU or NATO, wants people to be nostalgic for the old days. He wants us back in the fold.”
Source: No Harm Done
“In the pantry, waiting to awaken memories of flavors of Georgia, is a cache of things carried back from trips over the years: jars of neon-red adjika spice paste, packets of savory Svan salt and small glass bottles of precious Kakhetian sunflower oil, glowing yellow as buttercups.”
Source: Cold Kitchen: A Year of Culinary Travels
“Let us give up the illusion of hope, which betrays; of love, which wearies; of life, which surfeits but never satisfies; and even of death, which brings more than we want and less than we hope for.”
Source: The Book of Disquiet