“Chechnya forms the bookends to Tolstoy's career. He began writing his ...” — Anthony Marra Quote

“Chechnya forms the bookends to Tolstoy's career. He began writing his first novel, 'Childhood,' while in Starogladovskaya in Northern Chechnya, and his final novel, 'Hadji Murad,' is set in the Russo-Chechen War of the 19th century.”

“You look at a surgeon as you would a secular priest, almost, if it's your child, if it's your sister on the operating table. That was an idea that very much has interested me and I've wanted to explore for some time.”

“I'm wondering when you hit the age where people say, 'Oh, OK, he's not so young.'”

“We want peace and a political solution to the situation in Chechnya.”

“While looking up news from the North Caucasus on Twitter, I was linked to the sanguinely titled 'Seven Wonders of Chechnya Tour' on the website of Chechnya Travel, the postwar republic's first tourism outfit, founded in 2012.”

“When I visited Chechnya, I was taken aback at first because people would regularly make jokes about kidnapping me.”