- [Ivan is told the Communist Party has decreed the sun reaches zenith one hour after noon]
- Ivan Denisovich: Can they even tell the sun what to do?
- Ivan Denisovich: The end of an unclouded day. Almost a happy one. Just one of the 3,653 days of his sentence, from bell to bell. The extra three were for leap years.
- Ivan Denisovich: [slowly eating a bowl of soup, which was part of the breakfast fare served in the Gulag] The soup was the same every day. Fish... and whatever vegetable was provided that winter. The year before, it had been salted carrots. This year it was cabbage. When they run out of that, they'd give them stewed nettles.
- Ivan Denisovich: [describing part of the breakfast fare served in the Gulag] The rumor had it that it was the Chinese who had given the authorities the idea of serving boiled grass, instead of porridge. A bowl full of it weighed more than half a pound, but when you had eaten it you were still hungry. The good thing about it was that it had no taste - hot, or cold.