People were really interested in what was going on because of the international context of the Cold War.
Ryszard Kapuscinski

Readership was high, and very attentive. It was people's only source of knowledge about the world.
Ryszard Kapuscinski

The Cold War in Africa is one of the darkest, most disgraceful pages in contemporary history, and everybody ought to be ashamed.
Ryszard Kapuscinski

The Cold War was waged in a particularly brutal and cynical way in Africa, and Africa seemed powerless to do anything to stop it.
Ryszard Kapuscinski

The extent of one man's guilt may be defined by how much of it is experienced by the party he injured.
Ryszard Kapuscinski

The official independence celebration was going to be held over four or five days, and a group of journalists from all over the world was allowed to fly in, because Angola was closed otherwise.
Ryszard Kapuscinski

The tradition of Russian literature is also an eastern tradition of learning poetry and prose by heart.
Ryszard Kapuscinski

There are several reasons why Russians view the oppressive state positively. First, in the Russian Orthodox religion, there is an understanding of authority as something sent by God.
Ryszard Kapuscinski

There is a fundamental difference between the Polish experience of the state and the Russian experience. In the Polish experience, the state was always a foreign power. So, to hate the state was a patriotic act.
Ryszard Kapuscinski

There is a lack of critical assessment of the past. But you have to understand that the current ruling elite is actually the old ruling elite. So they are incapable of a self-critical approach to the past.
Ryszard Kapuscinski

This is the most intimate relationship between literature and its readers: they treat the text as a part of themselves, as a possession.
Ryszard Kapuscinski

Underground literature only began in the '70s, when technical developments made it possible. Before that, we were involved in a game with the censors. That was our struggle.
Ryszard Kapuscinski

We have such a mixture now, such a fusion of different genres.
Ryszard Kapuscinski

When is a crisis reached? When questions arise that can't be answered.
Ryszard Kapuscinski

When man meets an obstacle he can't destroy, he destroys himself.
Ryszard Kapuscinski