Roadside Picnic Quotes

“Человек, во всяком случае массовый человек, с легкостью преодолевает эту свою потребность в знаниях. По-моему, у него такой потребности и вовсе нет. Есть потребность понять, а для этого знаний не надо. Гипотеза о Боге, например, дает ни с чем не сравнимую возможность абсолютно все понять, абсолютно ничего не узнавая”
― Arkady Strugatsky, Roadside Picnic

“You’re absolutely right. Our little town is a hole. It always has been and still is. But now it is a hole into the future. We’re going to dump so much through this hole into your lousy world that everything will change in it. Life will be different. It’ll be fair. Everyone will have everything that he needs. Some hole, huh? Knowledge comes through this hole. And when we have the knowledge, we’ll make everyone rich, and we’ll fly to the stars, and go anywhere we want. That’s the kind of hole we have here”
― Arkady Strugatsky, Roadside Picnic

“I am an animal, you see that. I don't have the words, they didn't teach me the words. I don't know how to think, the bastards didn't let me learn how to think. But if you really are… all-powerful… all-knowing… then you figure it out! Look into my heart. I know that everything you need is in there. It has to be. I never sold my soul to anyone! It's mine, it's human! You take from me what it is I want… it just can't be that I would want something bad! Damn it all, I can't think of anything, except those words of his… 'HAPPINESS FOR EVERYBODY, FREE, AND NO ONE WILL GO AWAY UNSATISFIED!”
― Arkady Strugatsky, Roadside Picnic

“We know that things change, we’ve been told since childhood that things change, we’ve witnessed things change ourselves many a time, and yet we’re still utterly incapable of noticing the moment that change comes”
― Arkady Strugatsky, Roadside Picnic

“Щастие за всички даром и нека никой да не бъде пренебрегнат!”
― Arkady Strugatsky, Roadside Picnic

“Science fiction lends itself readily to imaginative subversion of any status quo. Bureaucrats and politicians, who can’t afford to cultivate their imaginations, tend to assume it’s all ray-guns and nonsense, good for children. A writer may have to be as blatantly critical of utopia as Zamyatin in We to bring the censor down upon him. The Strugatsky brothers were not blatant, and never (to my limited knowledge) directly critical of their government’s policies. What they did, which I found most admirable then and still do now, was to write as if they were indifferent to ideology—something many of us writers in the Western democracies had a hard time doing. They wrote as free men write.”
― Arkady Strugatsky, Roadside Picnic

“— Може да ви се стори смешно, но доста малко. Открихме много чудеса. В някои случаи се научихме дори да използваме тези чудеса за своите нужди. Даже свикнахме с тях… Маймуната натиска червеното копче и получава банан, натиска бялото и получава портокал, но без копчетата тя не знае как да се сдобие с банани и портокали. И не разбира какво отношение имат копчетата към бананите и портокалите.”
― Arkady Strugatsky, Roadside Picnic

“— Пикник! Представете си гора, междуселски път, полянка. Автомобилът се отбива от междуселския път на полянката, от автомобила слизат младежи, които свалят бутилки, кошници с храна, момичета, транзистори, фото– и кинокамери… Палят огън, разпъват палатки, пускат музика. А на сутринта си заминават. Зверовете, птиците и насекомите, които цяла нощ с ужас са наблюдавали случилото се, изпълзяват от своите скривалища. И какво виждат? На тревата локва от автомобилно масло, разлят бензин, разхвърлени негодни свещи и маслени филтри. Търкалят се парцали, изгорели крушки, някой е изтървал френски ключ. От протекторите на гумите е останала кал, полепнала от някакво неизвестно блато… е, и, сам разбирате, следи от огъня, огризки от ябълки, обвивки от бонбони, консервени кутии, празни бутилки, нечия носна кърпа, нечие джобно ножче, стари изпокъсани вестници, монети, увяхнали цветя от други поляни…”
― Arkady Strugatsky, Roadside Picnic

“Ето например вече от доста години усещам едно такова притеснение, някак си не се чувствувам уютно. Добре, те дойдоха и веднага си заминаха. А ако дойдат отново и им скимне да останат?”
― Arkady Strugatsky, Roadside Picnic

“Monkey silently appeared by the table next to the old man and stood there for a while, putting her furry little paws on the table. Suddenly, in a completely childlike manner, she leaned against the corpse and put her head on his shoulder. And Noonan, continuing to chatter, looked at these two monstrous offspring of the Zone and thought, My Lord, what else do we need? What else has to be done to us, so it finally gets through? Is this really not enough? He knew that it wasn’t enough. He knew that billions and billions didn’t know a thing and didn’t want to know and, even if they did find out, would act horrified for ten minutes and immediately forget all about it. I’ll get wasted, he thought savagely.”
― Arkady Strugatsky, Roadside Picnic

“There is a need to understand, and you don’t need knowledge for that.”
― Strugatskie Arkadii i Boris, Roadside Picnic

“And the boy kept going down the steep slope, skipping along, tapdancing to some extraordinary beat, and white dust flew from under his heels, and he yelled something at the top of his voice, very clearly and very joyously and very solemnly—like a song or an incantation—and Redrick thought that this was the first time in the history of this quarry that someone was going down this road in such a way, as if
going to a party. And at first he didn’t hear what this talking key was shouting, but then something seemed to switch on inside him, and he heard:

“Happiness for everyone! Free! As much happiness as you want! Everyone gather round! Plenty for everyone! No one will be forgotten! Free! Happiness! Free!”

With that he abruptly went quiet, as if a huge hand had forcefully shoved a gag into his mouth. And Redrick saw the transparent emptiness lurking in the shadow of the excavator bucket grab him, jerk him up into the air, and slowly, with an effort, twist him, the way a housewife wrings out the laundry. Redrick had the time to notice one of the dusty shoes fly off a twitching foot and soar high above the
quarry.”
― Strugatskie Arkadii i Boris, Roadside Picnic

“You ask: what makes man great?’” he quoted. “‘Is it that he re-created nature? That he harnessed forces of almost-cosmic proportions? That in a brief time he has conquered the planet and opened a window onto the universe? No! It is that despite all this, he has survived, and intends to continue doing so.”
― Arkady Strugatsky, Roadside Picnic

“You see, I’ve long since become unused to discussing humanity as a whole. Humanity as a whole is too stable a system, nothing upsets it.”
― Arkady Strugatsky, Roadside Picnic

“The world is just like that. Man is like that. If it wasn’t the Visit, it would have been something else. Pigs can always find mud.”
― Arkady Strugatsky, Roadside Picnic

“That’s exactly right. A man needs money in order to never think about it”
― Arkady Strugatsky, Roadside Picnic

“I get it,” said Noonan. “A roadside picnic.”
― Arkady Strugatsky, Roadside Picnic

“Because the pale horse has been saddled, and the rider has put a foot in the stirrup.”
― Arkady Strugatsky, Roadside Picnic

“Porque nosotros no entendemos nada, pero ellos al menos entienden hasta qué punto no entienden nada.”
― Boris Strugatzki, Roadside Picnic

“خیلی وقته از بشریت به عنوان یه کلیت واحد حرف نزدم. بشریت به عنوان یه کلیت نظام باثباتیه. هیچی نمی تونه اون رو به هم بریزه.”
― Arkady Strugatsky, Roadside Picnic

“It was once said, and very rightly, that a man who is well brought-up may read anything.”
― Arkady Strugatsky, Roadside Picnic

“Pigs can always find mud.”
― Arkady Strugatsky, Roadside Picnic

“It’s not because we do bad work. And it’s not because they are more clever and cunning than we are. The world is just like that.”
― Arkady Strugatsky, Roadside Picnic

“He gives me a look, and I see that he’s in no mood for jokes. He’s right—this is no joke. But when you’re leaving for the Zone, it’s one of two things: you start bawling, or you crack jokes—and I’m sure as hell not crying. I take a look at Kirill. He’s holding up OK, only mouthing something silently, as if praying. “Praying?” I ask. “Pray, pray! The farther into the Zone, the closer to heaven.” “What?” he says. “Pray!” I yell. “Stalkers cut in line at the gates of heaven!”
― Arkady Strugatsky, Roadside Picnic

“but strangely enough, his eyebrows and eyebrows were intact.”
― Arkady Strugatsky, Roadside Picnic

“All right”
― Arkady Strugatsky, Roadside Picnic

“The problem is we don’t notice the years pass”
― Arkady Strugatsky, Roadside Picnic

“Andare a lavorare? Ma io non voglio lavorare per voi, sono nauseato dal vostro lavoro, riuscite a capirlo? Se un uomo lavora, lavora sempre per qualcuno, è uno schiavo e nient'altro, e io ho sempre voluto essere me stesso, volevo essere me stesso, per potermene fregare di tutti, dell'angoscia e della noia altrui…”
― Arkady Strugatsky, Roadside Picnic

“Comunque, devo pensare. È una cosa insolita pensare, ecco qual è la disgrazia. Che cosa significa "pensare"? Pensare vuol dire imbrogliare, raggirare, bluffare, abbindolare, ma qui tutto questo non serve…”
― Arkady Strugatsky, Roadside Picnic

“A volte mi chiedo: perché accidenti ci diamo da fare? Per guadagnare soldi? Ma a che accidenti ci servono i soldi, se l'unica cosa che facciamo è darci da fare?”
― Arkady Strugatsky, Roadside Picnic