Chinghiz Aitmatov
Chinghiz Torekulovich Aitmatov (12 December 1928 – 10 June 2008) was a Kyrgyz author who wrote mainly in Russian, but also in Kyrgyz. He is one of the best-known figures in Kyrgyz literature.
Quotes
[edit]- All quotes are from the James Riordan translation, published by Telegram Books in 2007, ISBN 978-1-84659-032-0
- How could someone like Osman know what’s in a person’s soul? Nobody knows. Maybe no man in the world knows what’s in a woman’s soul.
- p. 25
- ‘Daniyar, tell us about the war before we bed down for the night.’
He said nothing for a while, even seemed put out by the question, staring hard into the fire; then he looked up and glared at us.
‘Talk about the war?’ he asked, as if responding to his own private thoughts. ‘No, it’s better to know nothing about it.’- p. 39
- The childish egotism I had not yet outgrown flared up inside me in terrific jealousy. Children, after all, always resent their loved ones associating with outsiders.
- pp. 46-47
- I would have liked to have gone up to him, put my arm around him and said something comforting. But what would I say? After standing there for a while I finally turned around. I lay on the hay for a time, looking up at the cloud-darkened sky and wondering why life was so incomprehensible and complicated.
- p. 82
- It seemed that when Jamilia left, my mother’s former strength left with her. She became stooped and haggard. Now I realize she could not accept someone breaking with tradition. If a storm uproots a mighty tree, the tree will never grow again.
- p. 91
