8 Quotes by Kapka Kassabova

...what exactly is there in human existence that can lure you away from pleasure: peace of mind, a walk by the sea, moderation?

All is one. Don't let me forget this, don't let the bastards divide me again. Our tragedy is fragmentation. It begins as a state of mind and ends up as destiny. It is the tragedy of our family of nations who hobble across this great peninsula, this exquisitely set Earth, like an army of blind soldiers a thousand years old looking for a place to rest. Let them rest. Forgive them, forgive me, forgive us. Our fear drove us insane and melancholy.

And as if blowing it up, flooding it, and keeping it behind the klyon wasn't enough, State Security special forces patrolled the area until 1989. Some locals say there was an additional 'live fence' of thousands of vipers specially bred for this purpose by Uzbeks along the southern Black Sea, under something called decree number 56. Why Uzbeks? Why vipers? Did decree 56 read: 'Let us fulfil the five-year snake plan in one year'?

...tango is art, not sex. Yes, it is art made with your body and someone else's. But not sex.

...'You are like tango music itself, Kapka.' Julio says, catching his breath. 'You're the universal woman- wherever you go, you will always be a local and a stranger at the same time.

People die crossing borders, and sometimes just being near them. The lucky ones are reborn on the other side.

Where do nations begin? In airport lounges, of course. You see them arriving, soul by soul, in pre-activation mode. They step into no man’s land, with only their passports to hold onto, and follow the signs to the departure gate. There, among the impersonal plastic chairs and despite themselves, they coalesce into the murky Rorschach stain of nationhood.

Something must be done!’ ‘It’s because you don’t live here,’ Blago snorted. ‘You still believe in justice.