Gary Shaw

“But the funniest one they showed us was about the need for leisure time. I was sitting next to women who work until one in the morning every day. And here they were telling us that when a person does not get any rest, he becomes a destructive member of society because of the elevated risk of accidents. The women were laughing so hard they fell off their chairs.”
― Masha Gessen, Words Will Break Cement: The Passion of Pussy Riot

“In all societies, public rhetoric involves some measure of lying, and history -- political history and art history -- is made when someone effectively confronts the lie. But in really scary societies all public conversation is an exercise in using words to mean their opposites -- in describing the brave as traitorous, the weak as frightening, and the good as bad -- and confronting these lies is the most scary and lonely thing a person can do.”
― Masha Gessen, Words Will Break Cement: The Passion of Pussy Riot

“At such a moment, it is not the physical pain which hurts the most (and this applies to adults as much as to punished children); it is the mental agony caused by the injustice, the unreasonableness of it all.”
― Viktor E. Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning

“When you lose your freedom, you lose, first and foremost, the opportunity to choose the company you keep.”
― Masha Gessen, Words Will Break Cement: The Passion of Pussy Riot