Women tell things in more interesting ways. They live with more feeling. They observe themselves and their lives. Men are more impressed with action. For them, the sequence of events is more important.
There is no need to give in to the compromise that totalitarian regimes always count on.
In the post-Soviet era, instead of freedom, various stripes of autocratic-totalitarianism have flourished: Russian, Belarusian, Kazakh... We are finding our way out from under the debris of the 'Red Empire' slowly and tentatively.
In apartments and cottages, on the street and in the train... I listen... More and more, I turn into one large ear, always turning to another person.
Nobody thought the Soviet Union would collapse; it was a shock for everyone.
Women are the most denigrated social group in the Soviet Union. The idea of women's emancipation is only a slogan in - but also, I should say, in many places outside - the Soviet Union. But especially in the militaristic Soviet society, people only thought of life in terms of struggle and the workers' toil.
I believe that in the 21st century, we should arm ourselves with ideas.
From the point of view of art, the butcher and the victim are equal as people. You need to see the people.
What is life about? Two things: love and death.
Love is what brings us into this world.
Why do I write? I have been called a writer of catastrophes, but that isn't true. I am always looking for words of love. Hate will not save us. Only love.
I don't think we should be deceived that art is such a moral thing.
Nothing, not even human life, is more precious to us than our myths about ourselves.
Real people speak in my books about the main events of the age, such as the war, the Chernobyl disaster, and the downfall of a great empire.
I have always grappled with the fact that the truth cannot be packaged into one soul or one mind alone. It is something fragmented: there is so much to it; the truth is varied and scattered across the world.
The purpose of art is to accumulate the human within the human being.
I don't remember men in our village after World War II: during the war, one out of four Belarusians perished, either fighting at the front or with the partisans. After the war, we children lived in a world of women. What I remember most is that women talked about love, not death.
I want to live at home. You can only write at home.
What I'm concerned with is what I would call the missing history - the invisible imprint of our stay on Earth and in time.
My father was an important person, the director of the school. He could talk to anybody - simple or educated. He liked chess, fishing, and beautiful women.
