Somaya

“To create, and to confront, one has to be an outcast.”
― Masha Gessen, Words Will Break Cement: The Passion of Pussy Riot

“adolescent who expresses dissident opinion more or less vocally can end up in a place like that. Some of the children arrive there from orphanages. If a child tries to run away from an orphanage, it is considered normal in our country to commit him to a psychiatric facility and treat him with the strongest of sedatives, such as aminazine, used to suppress Soviet dissidents back in the 1970s. This is particularly shocking considering these institutions’ general punitive trend and the absence of psychological help as such. All communication there is based on fear and the children’s forced subjugation. They become exponentially more cruel as a result. Many of the children are illiterate, but no one makes an effort to do anything about that. On the contrary, they do everything to quash the last remnants of any motivation to grow. The children shut down and stop trusting words. I”
― Masha Gessen, Words Will Break Cement: The Passion of Pussy Riot

“Here is what I was trying to figure out: how a miracle happens. A great work of art -- something that makes people pay attention, return to the work again and again, and reexamine their assumptions, something that infuriates, hurts, and confronts -- a great work of art is always a miracle.”
― Masha Gessen, Words Will Break Cement: The Passion of Pussy Riot

“The greatest illusion is that mankind has limitations.”
― Robert A. Monroe