Migjen

“Sunday had spread all over the city. It looked as if the sun had smacked into the earth and broken into pieces and chunks of wet light were scattered everywhere -- in the streets, on the window panes, on puddles and roofs. I remembered a day long ago when Grandmother had cleaned a big fish. Her forearms were splattered with shiny scales. It was as if she had Sunday in her whole body. When my father got angry, he had Tuesday.”
― Ismail Kadare, Chronicle in Stone

“Can a country's people be better than its planes?”
― Ismail Kadare, Chronicle in Stone

“Thick smoke like a herd of black horses was rising over the massive building and being blown around by the wind.”
― Ismail Kadare, Chronicle in Stone

“(In our city spring came from the sky, not from the soil, which was ruled by stone that recognizes no seasonal change. The change of the season could be glimpsed in the thinning of clouds, the appearance of the birds and the occasional rainbow.)”
― Ismail Kadare, Chronicle in Stone