Stuart M. Kaminsky > Quotes

“We, at least I, need monsters. Without monsters, there are no heroes. Something has to be black and white.
~Lew Fonesca ”
― Stuart M. Kaminsky

“Karpo, as always, was dressed in black. His leather coat was black. Even his scarf and fur hat were black. Rostnikov thought that clothes reflected the people who wore them. Rostnikov himself dressed neatly, conservatively, in old comfortable suits and ties Sarah had bought for him at market stalls. As for Karpo's choice of black, Rostnikov was not given to simple judgment. He himself was rather fond of black, which was either the absence of color or the totality of color. There was a statement in black, he thought. Black said, You cannot penetrate my being by looking at my exterior. I am a dark cipher.”
― Stuart M. Kaminsky, Murder on the Trans-Siberian Express

“The worst thing,' she whispered to the cat as she stroked it, 'is not to be useful.”
― Stuart M. Kaminsky, Death of a Dissident

“you fantasize too much. It will make you dream. Dreams will turn to hopes. Hopes will turn to longing. Longing will turn to despair. Despair will turn to laughter. And laughter will get you in trouble.”
― Stuart M. Kaminsky, Red Chameleon

“According to my Glendale high school days, the road along the ocean that stretched from San Diego to San Francisco was staked out in the 1780’s or so by the Spanish. The Spanish were afraid the French or Russians would claim the land along the coast first. France had picked up a big chunk of land between the Mississipi and the Rocky Mountains. Russia was coming south across the Berring Sea and down the coast from what would eventually be Alaska. The first big push to stake out the royal road stopped at what became Los Angeles. The whole point of the road was to set up a link between the Franciscan missions in California.”
― Stuart M. Kaminsky, Murder On The Yellow Brick Road

“Moscow,” he said, “was built to make people feel small against the magnificence of the revolution. The streets are eight lanes wide, the statues are five stories high, the buildings are as big as mountains. But this—look at it, Shemenkov”
― Stuart M. Kaminsky, Hard Currency

“COMMISSAR ILLYA RUTKIN TUCKED his briefcase under his arm, adjusted his goatskin gloves, pulled down his fur hat to cover his ears and tightened the scarf over his mouth before opening the door of the wooden house and stepping out into the Siberian morning.”
― Stuart M. Kaminsky, Red Chameleon

“A good wife is a stone to hold one down,” said the Wolfhound. “A rock to rely on,” Rostnikov corrected gently. “Da,” the Wolfhound said seriously, returning to Russian. “A rock to rely on. The American idiom contradicts itself and is often difficult to fathom.”
― Stuart M. Kaminsky, The Man Who Walked Like a Bear

“You may return to Odessa to spread the news that Fedot the cousin of fond memory was a walking blind erection that managed to be unable to locate me for the past four years. He was, however, more successful in locating a colorful array of other willing, waiting receptacles.”
― Stuart M. Kaminsky, A Whisper to the Living

“It is my duty,” said Karpo. “If it costs me my life, then I will die in the course of my duty. If I value my life more highly than I value the meaning by which I live, then my life has no meaning.”
― Stuart M. Kaminsky, Rostnikov's Vacation

“It was a typical Soviet ploy. People were forever quoting Lenin, much of the time with a great deal of creativity, knowing that even scholars had a difficult time identifying quotations from the mass of Lenin’s writing and speeches. Rostnikov”
― Stuart M. Kaminsky, Black Knight in Red Square

“The sun had by now whispered to the sub-arctic sky giving the gray darkness a glow, a gentle glow. Rostnikov remembered the ghost of a winter morning when he was a child.”
― Stuart M. Kaminsky, A Cold Red Sunrise

“When I first became a policeman, I was often struck by the absurdity of most of the crime I encountered. Gradually what used to seem absurd began to seem quite normal.”
― Stuart M. Kaminsky, Blood and Rubles

“Porfiry,” Sarah said. “I’ll heat you something.” “Girls,” said Rostnikov. “Go into the other room and pretend you are doing homework. You can listen from there.”
― Stuart M. Kaminsky, Blood and Rubles

“The train ride back from Yekteraslav was hell. Zelach brooded, pouted, almost sucked his thumb. He shifted and squirmed and demanded more attention than a petulant child.”
― Stuart M. Kaminsky, Red Chameleon

“I do not give my hand to murderers.”
― Stuart M. Kaminsky, A Cold Red Sunrise

“At the end of the top of the desk, the sickle caught the phone and the tip of the blade broke off. There are days, thought Rostnikov, where fate denies a man even the most meaningless of dramatic gestures. The”
― Stuart M. Kaminsky, Death of a Dissident

“This was fine with Katrina Vross, a weary, short, baggy-eyed chain-smoker with the put-upon air of many Russian bureaucrats whose attitude suggested that any question you might ask was a major imposition on their time, a reflection of your own stupidity, and a confirmation that life was an endless series of debilitating repetitions.”
― Stuart M. Kaminsky, Hard Currency

“Emil Karpo, the world is a strange, sad, wonderful, and horrible place, and Moscow is at the very center.”
― Stuart M. Kaminsky, The Dog Who Bit a Policeman

“superstition is remarkably powerful. The word ‘shaman’ itself is a creation of the Evenks, the native Siberians who live in the forests.”
― Stuart M. Kaminsky, A Cold Red Sunrise

“Girls,” said Rostnikov. “Go into the other room and pretend you are doing homework. You can listen from there.”
― Stuart M. Kaminsky, Blood and Rubles

“Once again he cawed four times and was about to caw again when he heard the sound of humans coming through the woods. The bird turned on the window ledge, flapped its black wings, and rose slowly toward the trees. He caught the wind and soared upward.”
― Stuart M. Kaminsky, Death of a Russian Priest

“I am going to move to St. Petersburg,” Boris said, his voice a crisp rasp. “You have relatives there?” Rostnikov said, ignoring the non sequitur. “No, never. That is why I want to go there.”
― Stuart M. Kaminsky, People Who Walk In Darkness