If they cut off both hands, I will compose music anyway holding the pen in my teeth. - Dmitri Shostakovich

It's about the people, who have stopped believing because the cup of evil has run over.

The withering away of illusions is a long and dreary process, like a toothache. But you can pull out a tooth. Illusions, dead, continue to rot within us. And stink. And you can't escape them. I carry all of mine around with me.

The Allies enjoyed my music, as though trying to say: Look how we like Shostakovich's symphonies, and you still want something more from us, a second front or something.