“You will have the last word.' 'Your name will be that word.”

“The girl's face hollowed with resignation; it had been a long time, but Sonja remembered what it was to have that face, what it was to feel you were no brighter than the dumbest man, no stronger th...”

“She felt as buoyantly patriotic as her Chechen classmates who could trace their family trees back to the acorns”

“Her mother stared in quiet awe of this more artful rearrangement of her genetic code, and slipped into a contentedness that usually appeared only after the red wine had fallen below the bottle label.”

“Then Brezhnev grabbed the wheel of power and captained the country with the exploratory heart of a municipal bus driver.”

“Time became more important the closer to death one was, so an extra few hours to make peace with the world were worth more than years.”

“God and government can work together”

“When it comes down to it, government is simply an abandonment of responsibility on the assumption that there are people, other than ourselves, who really know how to manage things. But the governme...”

“In our country let us reject violence and selfishness which could destroy Nigeria unity.”

“Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job.”

“Politics determines who has the power, not who has the truth.”

“Immer wieder behauptete Unwahrheiten werden nicht zu Wahrheiten, sondern, was schlimmer ist, zu Gewohnheiten.”