As the only woman, I was able to sit with the officers in front, with a glass of vodka in one hand and a cucumber in the other. That's how I went to my first war.

I will get a loan and pay the money the court asks for. But I will not lay down my writing and I still say this was an important book to write.

I always try to describe the situation just as it is. I try to find sentences that I believe tell the story best. Even my articles are more literary than ordinary news stories.

I was thinking, there are 5 million people, and I am just one of those 5 million. In the build-up to the war you see children playing in the street, and you think, ah, I'm going to be okay.

If you've lived in a dictatorship for thirty years, you're used to people lying to you.

If I lose, then I have to accept that my way of writing books is not the way society says it's okay to write.

I think when you start to get afraid, it's time to leave.