"I will not let her speak because I love her, and when you love someone, you do not make them tell war stories. A war story is a black space. On the one side is before and on the other side is after, and what is inside belongs only to the dead."
"First, the avid student must be aware that when the world was young it knew only seven things: water, life and death, salt, night, birds and the length of an hour."
"War is not for winning, Masha,"sighed Koschei, reading the tracks of supply lines, of pincer strategies, over her shoulder. "It is for surviving."
"Men die. It's practically what they're for."
"Just remember that the only question in a house is who is to rule. The rest is only dancing around that, trying not to look it in the eye."
"Just remember that the only question in a house is who is to rule. The rest is only dancing around that, trying not to look it in the eye."