Excerpt from Zinky Boys

Sometimes I think we don't need our eyes -- after all, you close them anyhow when the most important things are going on, and when you're feeling really good. A painter needs his eyes because that's the way he earns his living, but I've learnt to live without them. I sense my world now, and words mean more to me than they do to you sighted people.

Excerpt from page 172, Zinky Boys: Soviet Voices from a Forgotten War, by Svetlana Alexievich