Each of our lives is a Shakespearean drama raised to the thousandth degree. - Anna Akhmatova

I am not one of those who left the land to the mercy of its enemies. Their flattery leaves me cold, my songs are not for them to praise.

The whole time I was hoping my silence would fit yours and exclamation marks would gently float across time and space so that boundaries would be crossed; the whole time I was praying you would read my eyes and understand what I was never able to understand. See, we were never about butterflies. We’ve always been about burning stars. All about us is unearthly and radiant.

There is no death, each of us knows — it's banal to say. I'll leave it to others to explain.