In the West I would undoubtedly have been a ‘writer of dark things’, the kind that sounds the horn of pessimism, predicts the end of Europe, the senselessness of human endeavour and of the whole evolution of our species. Here, in this intellectual and economic wreckage, I blow the trumpet of morality and the meaningfulness of our existence.
[Zygmunt Mycielski]

She says she was a “pigeon-toed child with a receding chin and a you-leave-me-alone-or-I’ll-bite-you complex.”

What would you say of yourself?

My first shot: I was a cross-eyed child with very long bones and a John-Steinbeck-deserves-to-die-for-killing-the-red-pony complex.

Or: I was a horse-crazy child with an eye patch and an expression on my face of oh-dear-I-just-realized-that-sound-was-your-voice-and-I’m-sorry-what-was-the-question?