A Backpack, a Bear, and Eight Crates of Vodka Quotes

“There’s no such thing as a young refugee; every migrant has a past they’ve fled from, and how can you be young when you already have one life behind you?”
― Lev Golinkin, A Backpack, a Bear, and Eight Crates of Vodka: A Memoir

“It would’ve been hilarious if it didn’t hurt so much.”
― Lev Golinkin, A Backpack, a Bear, and Eight Crates of Vodka: A Memoir

“Mirrors aren’t complicated: whether in Cleveland or in Kabul, a mirror reflects what the mind sees, no more, no less.”
― Lev Golinkin, A Backpack, a Bear, and Eight Crates of Vodka: A Memoir

“This undying vigilance is such a part of the Jewish psyche that it might as well be genetic. Nomads we are, and nomads we remain. Cars replaced caravans, tents calcified into houses, yet the wanderings of old course through us, simmering under the surface.”
― Lev Golinkin, A Backpack, a Bear, and Eight Crates of Vodka: A Memoir

“A familiar image of a grim, frozen Russia is the babushka, the old woman, hunched and determined, head wrapped in a scarf. Her gnarled face stares out from old Ellis Island photographs and modern cable specials, and never fails to elicit awwwwws from concerned Westerners who'd love nothing more than to hug poor, helpless Granny and tell her that everything's going to be all right. That is misguided, and potentially hazardous. Women who had survived long enough to become grandmothers by the 1980s were Russia's rocks. Their generation had a hard life, even by the unforgiving standards of mother Russia. Forged from the crucible of wars, famines, and purges, the babushki had witnessed entire populations of husbands and sons vanish into the grave. These women were instilled with fierce matriarchal instinct, the notion that they were responsible for the welfare of all society, not just their kin, and underneath their kerchiefs the babushki watched, and listened, and remembered, and commanded.”
― Lev Golinkin, A Backpack, a Bear, and Eight Crates of Vodka: A Memoir

“The books were the background of my little world, and seeing them carted away by friends and relatives was like watching someone dismantle the sky.”
― Lev Golinkin, A Backpack, a Bear, and Eight Crates of Vodka: A Memoir

“Fuck’ is a great word,” mused Lina. “You’re going to love it. For starters, you can use it to draw attention to what you’re saying, so if something’s really great, it’s fucking great, or when it really sucks, it fucking sucks. It’s kind of like the Swiss Army knife of English: you can use it in so many ways.”
― Lev Golinkin, A Backpack, a Bear, and Eight Crates of Vodka: A Memoir

“Running a totalitarian regime is simple: tell the people what they’re going to do, shoot the first one to object, and repeat until everyone is on the same page. There’s no need to bother with platforms, debates, and that inconvenient din of opinions that forms the heart of democracy.”
― Lev Golinkin, A Backpack, a Bear, and Eight Crates of Vodka: A Memoir

“Ideas are more powerful than guns. We would not let our enemies have guns; why should we let them have ideas? —Joseph Stalin”
― Lev Golinkin, A Backpack, a Bear, and Eight Crates of Vodka: A Memoir

“We wanted freedom, the freedom to live our lives without trembling, and naturally we, like our innumerable predecessors, cast our gaze across the Atlantic.”
― Lev Golinkin, A Backpack, a Bear, and Eight Crates of Vodka: A Memoir