Slavenka Drakulić > Quotes

“What do people think of when they talk about their lives? Do they really see them as an integral whole, as a chronological sequence of events; as something logical, purposeful, completed? What moments do they remember, and how do they remember them? As words? As a series of images and sounds? My life crumbles into a series of pictures, unconnected scenes which comes to mind only occassionally and at random. But there are key events, the acts of chance or fate, which later enable me to construct a logical whole of my life. One such moment was meeting Jose. The other was my decision to see our love through to the very end.”
― Slavenka Drakulić, The Taste of a Man

“لكني لا أعتقد أن الالبانيين كانوا أغبياء عندما فعلوا هذا لكنهم كانوا على درجة من السذاجة كما كانت تملؤهم الكراهية لكي تفهم ما حدث في البانيا يجب أن تضع في ذهنك الخنادق التي كان غرضها الوحيد هو خلق الخوف و تخليده فإذا كنت تعيش محاطًا بهذه الخنادق و عندما تأتي الحرية في النهاية فان الخوف يتحول الي كراهية و عدوان”
― Slavenka Drakulić

“إن السعر النهائي للعزلة و السذاجة كان باهظًا: نوع من التدمير الذاتي لقد كانت كما لو أن الألبانيين اعتقدوا أن الدولة أو الاشخاص يمكنهم البدء من الصفر”
― Slavenka Drakulić

“Europe has another meaning for me. Every time I mention that word, I see the Bosnian family in front of me, living far away from whatever they call home and eating their own wonderful food because that's all that is left for them. The fact remains that after fifty years, it was possible to have another war in Europe; that it was possible to change borders; that genocide is still possible even today.”
― Slavenka Drakulić, Cafe Europa: Life After Communism

“I realize that I only have words and that, from time to time, as I hold them in my arms I am less lonely.”
― Slavenka Drakulić, How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed