Jaroslav Veis

"I think Lidovky (Lidové noviny newspaper) was important in that it was the first to be a bit bolder in asking questions of politicians. They were not servile from the very beginning. This was due to their dissident past and the fact that the government was close to Lidovky. It was a time that seemed completely crazy to me. Maybe there were no mobile phones and I would phone the Prime Minister at home. Mrs Čalfová answered and said her husband was taking a bath. So I apologised, but she pulled him out of the bath. I thought it was stupid. That's not the way it's supposed to be. "That the Prime Minister should get out of the bath because an editor from a newspaper was calling him."

"When I was in first grade, the school organized an event where first and second graders could buy oranges at school. I had a paper bag, and I would come home with it and tell my mum I was carrying oranges. And if we could send two or three to poor American kids so they could have something for Christmas too. But my mother began to explain to me that American children had plenty of oranges, and when she was little, oranges were normally bought in the store. It made me unhappy. I didn't understand why my mother was lying to me. I mean, they told me about the first republic in school... So why is my mum telling me these things? It was so confusing. When Stalin died, and then Gottwald, I explained to my younger brother that Comrade Gottwald had gone to Moscow to attend the funeral of Comrade Stalin, and there his heart broke with grief. But he was so brave that he returned to Prague with his broken heart to die in Prague. My brother told me later that he believed it until he was about ten years old. He said what a fool I was to tell him such things."