“Stalin gothic was not so much an architectural style as a form of worship. Elements of Greek, French, Chinese and Italian masterpieces had been thrown into the barbarian wagon and carted to Moscow and the Master Builder Himself, who had piled them one on the other into the cement towers and blazing torches of His rule, monstrous skyscrapers of ominous windows, mysterious crenellations and dizzying towers that led to the clouds, and yet still more rising spires surmounted by ruby stars that at night glowed like His eyes. After His death, His creations were more embarrassment than menace, too big for burial with Him, so they stood, one to each part of town, great brooding, semi-Oriental temples, not exorcised but used.”
― Martin Cruz Smith, quote from Gorky Park
“Proust said that you could seduce any woman if you were willing to sit and listen to her complain until four in the morning.”
― Martin Cruz Smith, quote from Gorky Park
“Well, love was no fading violet; love was a weed that flourished in the dark. Has anyone ever explained it?”
― Martin Cruz Smith, quote from Gorky Park
“There are not many road signs in Russia, you know. He laughed. If you don't know where the road goes, you shouldn't be on it.”
― Martin Cruz Smith, quote from Gorky Park
“There are two kinds of vodka, good and very good.’ Who”
― Martin Cruz Smith, quote from Gorky Park
“These enemies of society are to be driven out of New York regardless of their constitutional rights.’ The”
― Martin Cruz Smith, quote from Gorky Park
“In an unjust society a man may violate laws for valid social or economic reasons. In a just society there are no valid reasons except mental illness.”
― Martin Cruz Smith, quote from Gorky Park
“All nights should be so dark, all winters so warm, all headlights so dazzling. The”
― Martin Cruz Smith, quote from Gorky Park
“That’s why I tell the children not to chew gum. First it’s gum, then rock music, then marijuana and . . .”
― Martin Cruz Smith, quote from Gorky Park
“he never knows what he’s saying. He says everything, so he has to be right some of the time.”
― Martin Cruz Smith, quote from Gorky Park
“By definition prostitutes did not exist, because prostitution has been eliminated by the Revolution. Charges could be brought against them for spreading venereal disease, performing depraved acts or leading a nonproductive life, but by law there were no whores.”
― Martin Cruz Smith, quote from Gorky Park
“The decree against parasitism was originally formulated for Gypsies, then broad-mindedly expanded to include dissidents and all sorts of profiteers,”
― Martin Cruz Smith, quote from Gorky Park
“The chief investigator for Special Cases was a composite of the most ordinary features, a stencil of a man.”
― Martin Cruz Smith, quote from Gorky Park
“Two days ago, I was lunching at the Writers Union with the eminent historian Tomashevski. That's the sort of man you should know. Respected, charming, hasn't produced a piece of work in ten years. He has a system, which he explained to me. First, he submits an outline for a biography to the Academy to be absolutely sure his approach is consistent with Party policy. A crucial first step, as you'll see later. Now, the person he studies is always an important figure - that is, someone from Moscow - hence Tomashevski must do his Russian research close to home for two years. But this historical character also traveled, yes, lived for some years in Paris or London; hence Tomashevski must do the same, apply for and receive permission for foreign residence. Four years have passed. The Academy and the Party are rubbing their hands in anticipation of this seminal study of the important figure by the eminent Tomashevski. And now Tomashevski must retire to the solitude of a dacha outside Moscow to tend his garden and creatively brood over his cartons of research. Two more years pass in seminal thought. And just as Tomashevski is about to commit himself to paper, he checks with the Academy again only to learn that Party policy has totally about-faced; his hero is a traitor, and with regrets all around, Tomashevski must sacrifice his years of labor for the greater good. Naturally, they are only too happy to urge Tomashevski to start a new project, to plow under his grief with fresh labor. Tomashevski is now studying a very important historical figure who lived for some time in the South of France. He says there is always a bright future for Soviet historians, and I believe him.”
― Martin Cruz Smith, quote from Gorky Park
“Interrogation is largely a process of rebirth done in the clumsiest fashion possible, a system in which the midwife attempts to deliver the same baby a dozen times in a dozen different ways.”
― Martin Cruz Smith, quote from Gorky Park
Martin Cruz Smith
Born place: in Reading, Pennsylvania, The United States
Born date November 3, 1942
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“What is offered from a generous heart should be accepted generously.”
― Alexandre Dumas, quote from Twenty Years After
“What grief is not taken away by time? What passion will survive an unequal battle with it? I knew a man in the bloom of his still youthful powers, filled with true nobility and virtue, I knew him when he was in love, tenderly, passionately, furiously, boldly, modestly, and before me, almost before my eyes, the object of his passion - tender, beautiful as an angel - was struck down by insatiable death. I never saw such terrible fits of inner suffering, such furious scorching anguish, such devouring despair as shook the unfortunate lover. I never thought a man could create such a hell for himself, in which there would be no shadow, no image, nothing in the least resembling hope... They tried to keep an eye on him; they hid all instruments he might have used to take his own life. Two weeks later he suddenly mastered himself: he began to laugh, to joke; freedom was granted him, and the first thing he did was buy a pistol. One day his family was terribly frightened by the sudden sound of a shot. They ran into the room and saw him lying with his brains blown out. A doctor who happened to be there, whose skill was on everyone's lips, saw signs of life in him, found that the wound was not quite mortal, and the man, to everyone's amazement, was healed. The watch on him was increased still more. Even at the table they did not give him a knife to and tried to take away from him anything that he might strike himself with; but a short while later he found a new occasion and threw himself under the wheels of a passing carriage. His arms and legs were crushed; but again they saved him. A year later I saw him in a crowded room; he sat at the card table gaily saying 'Petite ouverte,' keeping one card turned down, and behind him, leaning on the back of his chair, stood his young wife, who was sorting through his chips.”
― Nikolai Gogol, quote from The Collected Tales of Nikolai Gogol
“Of course, he showed me this one afternoon when he was skipping class. When trolls cut classes, you think they are losers. When the beautiful and/or reasonably erudite do the same thing to sit on the library steps and read poetry, you think they are on to something deep. You see only deep brown wavy hair and strong legs, well honed by years of Ultimate Frisbee. You see that book of T. S. Eliot poems held by the hand with the long, graceful fingers, and you never stop to think that it shouldn't take half a semester to read one book of poems... that maybe he is not so much reading as getting really high every morning and sleeping it off on the library steps, forcing the people who actually go to class to step or trip over him.”
― Holly Black, quote from Zombies Vs. Unicorns
“NAMBLA's infiltrated First Recon,' Person continues after bringing the vehicle to a stop. 'There's a guy in Third Platoon, hes going to be collecting photographs of all the children and sending them back to NAMBLA HQ. Back at Pendleton he volunteers at the daycare center. He goes around collecting all the turds from the five-year-olds and puts them into Copenhagen tins. Out there everyone thinks he's dipping, but it's not tobacco. It's dookie from five-year-olds.”
― Evan Wright, quote from Generation Kill: Devil Dogs, Iceman, Captain America, and the New Face of American War
“The Rape of Nanking did not penetrate the world consciousness in the same manner as the Holocaust or Hiroshima because the victims themselves had remained silent.”
― Iris Chang, quote from The Rape of Nanking
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