Warsaw Quotes

“Everybody has an angel hiding inside. When you die, your angel comes out. You can die, but not your angel. Your angel never dies.”
― Jerry Spinelli

“This was the ghetto: where children grow down instead of up.”
― Jerry Spinelli

“He tapped my chest. 'Happy is here.' He tapped his own chest. 'Here.'
I looked down past my chin. 'Inside?'
'Inside.'
It was getting crowded in there. First angel. Now happy. It seemed there was more to me than cabbage and turnips.”
― Jerry Spinelli, Milkweed

“They don't live here. They live in Heaven.'
Where's that?'
I don't know,' I said. 'Enos says it's right here, on this side of the wall, but I never saw an angel over here. Kuba says it's in Russia. Olek says Washington America.'
What's Washington America?'
Enos says it's a place with no wall and no lice and lots of potatoes.”
― Jerry Spinelli, Milkweed

“Warszawa ma duszę, wyczuwalną dla każdego niemal Polaka i dla niezliczonych cudzoziemców, którzy ją poznali i zakochali się w niej.”
― Leopold Tyrmand

“Cultivation, old civilization, beauty, history! Surprising turnings of streets, shapes of venerable cottages, lovely aged eaves, unexpected and gossamer turrets, steeples, the gloss, the antiquity! Gardens. Whoever speaks of Paris has never seen Warsaw. [...] Whoever yearns for an aristocratic sensibility, let him switch on the great light of Warsaw.”
― Cynthia Ozick

“Our task is to pay attention... To listen to the stories. We want all political backgrounds, all religious attitudes. The illiterate and the elite. Every ideology. Interview everyone. Learn about their lives. I need the best minds here to help.”
― Lauren Grodstein, We Must Not Think of Ourselves

“لطالما وددتُ أن أشتري جميع البالونات وأطلق سراحها، غير أنّي كنتُ أجزم كلّ مرّة بأنّ مالك الحوراني، وهو لقبه، أمين عليها أكثر من الجميع. لا يسلّمها إلّا للأطفال، الذين يقدّرون معنى الأشياء قبل أن يحرّروها، فتصير كالمشرّدين، صاحبة حرّيّة مغمّسة بالكآبة.”
― أحمد محسن, وارسو قبل قليل

“Chcieliśmy być wolni i wolność sobie zawdzięczać.”
― Jan Stanisław Jankowski

“Jeg trodde Auschwitz var helvete på jord og at ingenting kunne bli verre. Der tok jeg feil. Auschwitz var et organisert helvete. Krematoriene fungerte. Likene ble ikke liggende på appellplassen. Warszawa var et planløst helvete.”
― Robert Savosnick, Jeg ville ikke dø

“Wyczuwa się brak specyficznego, ciętego, lecz grzecznego humoru i swoistego warszawskiego fasonu. „Reszty nie trzeba” – a piechotą wróci do domu. „Boso, ale w ostrogach”. Forsy nie ma, ale na spotkanie ostatnie pół kilometra przejedzie taksówką. Warszawski fason.”
― Stanisław Grzesiuk, Klawo, jadziem!

“Pour qui est né après la seconde guerre mondiale, ces événements vieux d'un demi-siècle sont comme des histoires de loups-garous. Cependant le message par lequel s'achève le compte-rendu de ces événements, et qui ne devait être que symbolique, est devenu d'actualité. (postface, 1993)”
― Marek Edelman, Mémoire du ghetto de Varsovie