Quotes by Olga Tokarczuk

"I think the deepest level of our freedom is being able to change our identity."

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"Reality is like a doughnut: Everything that is good and funny and juicy is outside the center, which is just emptiness."

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"Two centuries ago, when our nation lost its sovereignty and was partitioned among Russia, Prussia and Austria, Polish Romantics like the poet and nationalist Adam Mickiewicz declared that independence would come only with great sacrifice. Ever since, this myth of the martyr, or messianic victim, has emerged during times of national crisis."

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"Poland was once a powerful imperial country that disappeared from maps of Europe for more than 100 years. It was partitioned and occupied by the Nazis and the Russians... We pop up and disappear and we do not trust what we are told to believe."

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