Anna Politkovskaya Quotes

My life would be in danger if I return to Mexico.

Dissenters will become food for crocodiles.

When even one American - who has done nothing wrong - is forced by fear to shut his mind and close his mouth - then all Americans are in peril.

There is nothing more dangerous for a population than self-censorship by fear.

We have to live like people in a web of knives, we mustn't reach out our hands or we get them gashed.

No, I don't think it's fair to label Islam 'violent.' But I will say that to my knowledge, no writer has ever gone into hiding for criticizing the Amish.

I wouldn't want to roll the dice on Kabul by myself, because I really think getting killed is definitely a possibility there. A very good possibility.

Still people are dangerous.

In a perfect world, there would be no censorship, because there would be no judgement. I find the hypocritical aspect disconcerting, to say the least. We can show people being murdered on television, but I'm not able to say "chickenshit" in public. At the same time, I understand that people are afraid. Because I think censorship is about fear. It's just fear being projected onto art.

When people are intimidated about having their own opinions, oppression is at hand.

I'm afraid this man will kill me some day.

It's very worrying at this time in the world that any point of view should be prohibited, that's banned, there are heretics that should be burned at the stake.

The uncertainty of the danger belongs to the essence of terrorism.

It's tough to play the right chord on the instrument when there's someone out there who wants to kill you.

If I have been guilty of no violation of law, why am I hunted up and down continually like a partridge upon the mountains? Why am I threatened with the tar barrel? Why am I waylaid every day, and from night to night, and my life in jeopardy every hour?

I felt like a hunted animal, followed constantly, waiting to be killed.

There's horror in your life, believe me, whether it's coming, or you've just been lucky to miss it today.

The truth is this is a very dangerous world.

Persecution is the first law of society because it is always easier to suppress criticism than to meet it.

Wherever they burn books they will also, in the end, burn human beings.

When someone holds a knife to your throat it's easy to be scared. It's not hard to imagine what it would be like.

We live in an unsafe world.

We are now in the 21st century: all books, including the Koran, should be fair game for flushing down the toilet without fear of violent reprisal.

The tongue is more to be feared than the sword.

It is dangerous to speak the truth to tyrants.