Svetlana Alexievich quotes:

Chernobyl is a theme worthy of Dostoevsky, an attempt to justify mankind.

When I see a garden in flower, then I believe in God for a second. But not the rest of the time

Show me a fantasy novel about Chernobyl--there isn't one! Because reality is more fantastic.

They weren't maniacs, and they weren't criminals. They were just ordinary workers at a nuclear power plant. Chernobyl opened an abyss, something beyond Kolyma, Auschwitz, the Holocaust. A person with an axe and a bow, or a person with a grenade launcher and gas chambers, can't kill everyone. But with an atom...