Amin is the shame of the whole world. The fact that he managed to rule so long and commit so many crimes was only possible thanks to the hypocrisy of the East and the West who were waging the Cold War for world domination.
- Ryszard Kapuscinski Quote

Amin managed to invite both the US and Soviet ambassadors to his palace at the very same time and then deliberately kept them together in his waiting room.
- Ryszard Kapuscinski Quote

At that time Uganda had four aircraft, one of which was at the exclusive disposal of Amin. It would fly to London on shopping trips for the president and his entourage. In Uganda there was nothing.
- Ryszard Kapuscinski Quote

Conditions were so hard. To send the news out, telex was the only means, but telex was very rare in Africa. So if somebody was flying to Europe, we gave him correspondence to send after he arrived.
- Ryszard Kapuscinski Quote

Do not be misled by the fact that you are at liberty and relatively free; that for the moment you are not under lock and key: you have simply been granted a reprieve.
- Ryszard Kapuscinski Quote

He killed his enemies because he was afraid they would kill him. Amin ordered entire tribes to be put to death, because he feared they would rebel.
- Ryszard Kapuscinski Quote

I remember that during the period leading up to independence in Angola in 1975, I was the only correspondent there at all for three months.
- Ryszard Kapuscinski Quote

I'll tell you what colonial experience is.
- Ryszard Kapuscinski Quote

In modern Russia, you have no official, formal assessment of this past. Nobody in any Russian document has said that the policy of the Soviet government was criminal, that it was terrible. No one has ever said this.
- Ryszard Kapuscinski Quote

In order to feel contempt, you generally need to cherish some kind of feelings.
- Ryszard Kapuscinski Quote

In the Russian experience, although the Russian state is oppressive, it is their state, it is part of their fabric, and so the relation between Russian citizens and their state is complicated.
- Ryszard Kapuscinski Quote

Money changes all the iron rules into rubber bands.
- Ryszard Kapuscinski Quote

My writing is a combination of three elements. The first is travel: not travel like a tourist, but travel as exploration. The second is reading literature on the subject. The third is reflection.
- Ryszard Kapuscinski Quote

Our salvation is in striving to achieve what we know we'll never achieve.
- Ryszard Kapuscinski Quote

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

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

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 Quote

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 Quote

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

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 Quote

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 Quote

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 Quote

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

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