Quotes by Vasily Grossman

Both his voice and eyes had the burning cold of alcohol. His strength no longer lay in his military experience or his knowledge of the map, but in his harsh, impetuous soul.

A mountain had died, its skeleton had been scattered over the ground. Time had aged the mountain; time had killed the mountain-and here lay the mountains bones.

The longer a nations history, the more wars, invasions, wanderings, and periods of captivity it has seen-the greater the diversity of its faces.

“Thousands of people are being buried and no one attends the funerals, said one of the soldiers. In peacetime its the other way round: one coffin and a hundred people carrying flowers.”

“Sofya now understood the difference between life and existence: her life had come to an end, but her existence could drag on indefinitely. And however wretched and miserable this existence was, the thought of violent death still filled her with horror.”

“Ivan tells Anna: I used to imagine that being embraced by a woman . . . as something so wonderful that it would make me forget everthing . . . [But] happiness, it turns out, will be to share with you the burden I cant share with anyone else.”