Quotations from *Last of the Breed*
Louis L'Amour
1908-1988 American

When prisoners were brought before Colonel Zamatev, they were frightened or wary. They had all heard the stories of brainwashings and torture, yet there was in this man no evidence of fear or of doubt in himself. Zamatev was irritated by a faint, uneasy feeling.
—Louis L'Amour, Last of the Breed

His smile was warm as he greeted Yakov. "Come! Sit by the fire! It is good to see you!"

"I am afraid there is little time for sitting, comrade. You are to be arrested. You must leave this place at once."
—Louis L'Amour, Last of the Breed

So many things worth doing may seem foolish to others, may seem impossible.
—Louis L'Amour, Last of the Breed

"There are millions of Americans who would like to see Lake Baikal and the Kamchatka Peninsula. If Russia would tear down the Berlin Wall, and build more good hotels, we Americans would be all over your country spending money, making friends, seeing the beauties of Russia, and making ridiculous all that both countries are spending on munitions."
—Louis L'Amour, Last of the Breed

He was not blundering, wishing, complaining, or hopeless. He was going somewhere, and he knew where he was going and how to get there...
—Louis L'Amour, Last of the Breed

"Speak to the spirits of the sea, Grandfather. My voice is lonely in the night."
—Louis L'Amour, Last of the Breed

“It seems to me I’m resurrected”
Leonid Martynov
1905-1980 Russian
translated by J.R. Rowland

It seems to me I’m resurrected.
I lived. My name was Hercules.
Then, I weighed at least a ton.
Roots and all I tore up trees,
Stretched my hand and touched the skies.
When I sat down I broke the chairs.
I died. And now I’m resurrected:
Normal height and normal size
Like other people. Kind and gay,
When I sit down I don’t break chairs.
But all the same, I’m Hercules.

Six-Word Story
Tobias Wolff
1945- American

She gave. He took. He forgot.

Quotations

Whenever I saw a rich person I would ask where their money was from. Oil would be a common answer, or real estate, or steel... The answer was never, "Poetry—their money's from poetry, Fran."
—Fran Lebowitz

A good poem is a contribution to reality. The world is never the same once a good poem has been added to it.
—Dylan Thomas

“How terrible it is”
anonymous
Russian
translated by Bradley Jordan

How terrible it is to trust no one,
to have neither joys, nor friends,
and to never open when someone knocks
at the fettered doors of the soul.

But it’s worse to be the one who knocks,
calling another from inside yourself
to open the door, to see, to take fright,
then quickly to lock up again.

Six-Word Memoir
Bjorn Stromberg

Found true love, married someone else.