Quotes from Olga Tokarczuk

Every body part deserves to be remembered. Every human body deserves to last. It is an outrage that it's so fragile, so delicate. It is an outrage that it's permitted to disintegrate underground, or given the mercy of flames, burned like trash.

But I know that writing on bags is something people do only out of anxiety and uncertainty. Neither defeat nor the greatest success is conducive to writing.

God, God . . . He's just a good accountant with an eye on the debit as well as the credit column. There has to be a balance. One life is wasted, another is born . . .

I pass billboards that announce in black and white, in English, 'Jesus loves even you'. I feel uplifted by the unexpected encouragement; I'm only slightly alarmed by the 'even'. (page 336)