Ryszard Kapuscinski Quotes

I remember that during the period leading up to independence in Angola in 1975, I was the only correspondent there at all for three months.

The official independence celebration was going to be held over four or five days, and a group of journalists from all over the world was allowed to fly in, because Angola was closed otherwise.

Money changes all the iron rules into rubber bands.

My writing is a combination of three elements. The first is travel: not travel like a tourist, but travel as exploration. The second is reading literature on the subject. The third is reflection.

The tradition of Russian literature is also an eastern tradition of learning poetry and prose by heart.

Our salvation is in striving to achieve what we know we'll never achieve.

More than anything, one is struck by the light. Light everywhere. Brightness everywhere. Everywhere, the sun.

Photographing expresses human desire to preserve passing time. It is like a man struggling with time that elapses, and in general - a desire to preserve oneself.

In order to feel contempt, you generally need to cherish some kind of feelings.

Our job is like a baker's work - his rolls are tasty as long as they're fresh; after two days they're stale; after a week, they're covered with mould and fit only to be thrown out.

I'm trying to put more elements of the essay into my writing.

The Cold War was waged in a particularly brutal and cynical way in Africa, and Africa seemed powerless to do anything to stop it.

The Cold War in Africa is one of the darkest, most disgraceful pages in contemporary history, and everybody ought to be ashamed.

When man meets an obstacle he can't destroy, he destroys himself.

When is a crisis reached? When questions arise that can't be answered.

In the Russian experience, although the Russian state is oppressive, it is their state, it is part of their fabric, and so the relation between Russian citizens and their state is complicated.

He killed his enemies because he was afraid they would kill him. Amin ordered entire tribes to be put to death, because he feared they would rebel.

Amin knew that neither West nor East would criticize him for fear that he would support the other side. He felt he was untouchable and he said so openly.

Do not be misled by the fact that you are at liberty and relatively free; that for the moment you are not under lock and key: you have simply been granted a reprieve.

The extent of one man's guilt may be defined by how much of it is experienced by the party he injured.

This is the most intimate relationship between literature and its readers: they treat the text as a part of themselves, as a possession.

There are several reasons why Russians view the oppressive state positively. First, in the Russian Orthodox religion, there is an understanding of authority as something sent by God.

If the crowd disperses, goes home, does not reassemble, we say the revolution is over.

Literature seemed to be everything then. People looked to it for the strength to live, for guidance, for revelation.

Amin hid nothing. Everybody knew everything. Yet the American Senate only introduced a resolution breaking off trade with Amin three months before his overthrow.