Svetlana Alexievich

The books that I'm writing, you can write them only when you're amongst your people. You're not going to find it on the Internet. You're not going to hear it there.

I write my books at moments of shock. I meet people in extremis and their stories are highly emotionally charged.

Every one of his characters has their own idea, their own thing they want to express. Dostoevsky just lets them do it.

I always aim to understand how much humanity is contained in each human being and how I can protect this humanity in a person.

I don't remember men in our village after World War II: during the war, one out of four Belarusians perished, either fighting at the front or with the partisans. After the war, we children lived in a world of women. What I remember most is that women talked about love, not death.

I'm interested in little people. 'The little, great people' is how I would put it, because suffering expands people.

Why do I write? I have been called a writer of catastrophes, but that isn't true. I am always looking for words of love. Hate will not save us. Only love.