I collect the everyday life of feelings, thoughts, and words. I collect the life of my time.

I've been searching for a genre that would be most adequate to my vision of the world to convey how my ear hears and my eyes see life. I tried this and that, and finally, I chose a genre where human voices speak for themselves. But I don't just record a dry history of events and facts; I'm writing a history of human feelings.

I'm interested in the history of the soul: the everyday life of the soul, the things that the big picture of history usually omits - or disdains.

Svetlana Alexievich Quotes