Alison

“What colour is a scream? What does it taste like? What is the colour of blood? Red in hospital, grey on dry sand and bright blue on stone, in the evening when it's all dried out. Blood spills as quickly from a seriously injured person as liquid from a broken jar . . . his life flickers out, only the eyes shine bright and stare past you, stubbornly until the very end.

Everything's been paid for. By us. And in full.”
― Svetlana Alexievich, Zinky Boys: Soviet Voices from the Afghanistan War

“I guess that's how you experience your own death, from a distance”
― Svetlana Alexievich, Zinky Boys: Soviet Voices from the Afghanistan War

“Not long ago I had a few teeth pulled, one after the other, and in my pain and shock I began to talk. The dentist, a woman, looked at me almost in disgust: "A mouth full of blood, and he wants to talk . . ." At that moment I realized I would never be able to talk honestly about anything again. Everyone thinks of us like that: mouths full of blood, and we want to talk”
― Svetlana Alexievich, Zinky Boys: Soviet Voices from the Afghanistan War

“It's three years since my son died and I haven't dreamt about him once. I go to sleep with with his vest and trousers under my pillow. 'Come to me in my dreams, Sasha. Come and see me!'
But he never does. I wonder what I've done to offend him.”
― Svetlana Alexievich, Zinky Boys: Soviet Voices from the Afghanistan War