12 Quotes by Marina Dyachenko

Sasha herself had changed. It felt as if she had been taken apart—and then put back together again, but at first glance she seemed exactly the same. Sometimes even she herself thought that she was exactly the same as last fall, when they had listened to “Gaudeamus” in the assembly hall.

Think of what you told me,” Kostya said.“What?”“‘If we get to the end of the course . . . we shall become just like them. And we shall speak their language. Then we’ll take revenge.’”Sasha shook her head. “If we get to the end of this course, we won’t want to take revenge anymore. We’ll become just like them . . . and we’ll want to be like them.

Zakhar hesitated. Then said, “We will change. Everything will change. Our vision, hearing, our entire organisms will transform themselves. Then, during the winter finals, there will be this crucial placement test that qualifies you for moving to another level. And then . . .”“And then what?”“I don’t know. Do you think they tell the second years everything? But I think we’ll stop being human altogether.

I’m serious, Sasha: what is so important about being human? Is it because you simply haven’t experienced anything else?

To live is to be vulnerable. A thin membrane of a soap bubble separates one from impenetrable hell. Ice on the road. The unlucky division of an aging cell. A child picks up a pill from the floor. Words stick to each other, line up, obedient to the great harmony of speech...

Sasha, the world is full of entities that people cannot negotiate with. But somehow people survive, don’t they?

The world, as you see it, is not real. And the way you imagine it—it does not even come close. Certain things seem obvious to you, but they simply do not exist.”“And you, do you not exist?” Sasha couldn’t help herself. “Are you not real?”Portnov removed the scarf from her face. Under his gaze, she blinked confusedly.“I exist,” he said seriously. “But I am not at all what you think.

It's the nature of our specialty: nothing can be explained. One can only achieve understanding on one's own. You are a command, a part of the Speech of Creation. A load-bearing structure. I told you once you were a projection. Remember? Here it is: You are a projection of the Word that is destined to reverberate. And every day you get closer to the original. You are a foundation upon which an entire universe can be built. And this cannot be explained, Sasha, it can only be understood.

There are words that are simply trash, refuse, they turn into nothing immediately after they are spoken. Others throw shadows, hideous and pathetic, and sometimes gorgeous and powerful, capable of saving a dying soul. But only a few of these words become human beings and pronounce other words. And everyone in the world has a chance of encountering someone whom he himself spoke out loud . . .