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

“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

“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

“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

“By middle age I mean they were a year or two older than me. The lower range of middle age went up miraculously each year, managing to stay just ahead of me. If I lived long enough, I might entirely eliminate middle age from my experience. Someday I’ll just wake up and admit that I’m old.”
― Stuart M. Kaminsky, Murder On The Yellow Brick Road

“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

“From time to time, in spite of her training, she did fall into deep sleep for a few minutes, and the dream did come, the dream of circles within circles that turned to a spiral of wire on which she was skewered. She twisted downward on that spiral toward the ever narrowing center hidden in darkness, below which she would fall off the wire and plummet into the void. She ground her teeth furiously, awakening herself.”
― Stuart M. Kaminsky, Black Knight in Red Square

“From time to time, Felix muttered nichevo, the Russian word for “nothing,” which conveyed resignation, stoicism, the idea that whatever might be the problem, you shouldn’t let it get to you. Life is too full of explosions. One cannot allow oneself to be destroyed by fear of them.”
― Stuart M. Kaminsky, A Fine Red Rain

“ICE CREAM IS THE SOVIET Union’s most popular dessert. It is eaten not only in the summer but in the winter.”
― Stuart M. Kaminsky, A Cold Red Sunrise

“There were a few seats, but Karpo did not want to sit. He wanted the distraction of discomfort, relished the physical irritation to be overcome.”
― Stuart M. Kaminsky, Red Chameleon

“The one thing she had decided was that if he placed a hand on her once, she would remove it. If he placed a hand on her twice, he would hit the floor with a sudden and painful thud.”
― Stuart M. Kaminsky, People Who Walk In Darkness

“We’re middle-aged men. We should be bouncing grandchildren and planting petunias. Instead we run around getting hit by trains, falling off horses, and getting punched by heavies.”
― Stuart M. Kaminsky, You Bet Your Life

“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

“But Petrov’s wife had grown ill with a disease of weariness the doctor called chronic fatigue syndrome, which he said could not be cured. Petrov’s wife couldn’t work.”
― Stuart M. Kaminsky, The Dog Who Bit a Policeman

“Life was a series of tests, challenges that one was either prepared for or would be worn away by. Since hardship was inevitable, it was best to condition oneself to it.”
― Stuart M. Kaminsky, A Fine Red Rain

“The food included pelmeny, small balls of minced meat covered with pastry; vareniky, pastry filled with berries; soleniye ogurscy, cucumbers prepared for two weeks in salt water with spices; vinegret, pieces of herring, chopped beef, beets, cucumber, carrot, potato, and oil; and yazyk, slices of boiled beef tongue with horse radish.”
― Stuart M. Kaminsky, A Whisper to the Living

“I think you should put him in jail in a cell all by himself,” said Melisa. “Forever, with no one to talk to and no television. Only books that are good for you and food that’s good for you but tastes bad so he’ll live a long time and be sorry.”
― Stuart M. Kaminsky, Lieberman's Day

“Hope was reasonable, but never expect the hope to be fruitful.”
― Stuart M. Kaminsky, Red Chameleon

“If I don’t help you, you will sit there till Moscow turns capitalist, and I will wither away,” Kroft said reasonably.”
― Stuart M. Kaminsky, Death of a Dissident

“He closed the door and looked across the room at his daughter, who shivered at the chill he had brought in.”
― Stuart M. Kaminsky, Lieberman's Day

“Thank God he’s not Jewish,” sighed Bess. “What?” “I’m sorry,” she said. “I’m still waking up. Did you make coffee? No, the kids. It’s just if he were Jewish, the newspapers, the … You know what I mean.” “I know,” said Lieberman.”
― Stuart M. Kaminsky, Lieberman's Choice

“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

“Sara kept from slouching like Zelach or shuffling like her husband or looking blank like Karpo. She had wonderful examples in her life of how not to look.”
― Stuart M. Kaminsky, A Whisper to the Living

“Sasha,” Rostnikov had interrupted, “do you know Alice in Wonderland!” “Alice in … ? No,” Tkach answered. “You should read it,” said Rostnikov. “It is about the Soviet Union. At one point a crazed hat maker says what I am about to say to you: Begin at the beginning and when you come to the end, stop.”
― Stuart M. Kaminsky, Rostnikov's Vacation

“Anton placed two glasses on the table, each containing a spoon. From the steaming gray pot that he carried in a towel he poured hot water, letting it run down the spoon to keep the water from cracking the glass.”
― Stuart M. Kaminsky, Rostnikov's Vacation

“Others argued that the hard life of a Muscovite made its inhabitants strong, tough, and hard, while Americans, English, and the French were soft from too much convenience. Why, then, Rostnikov thought, do we not live as long as they do?”
― Stuart M. Kaminsky, Red Chameleon