“I was interested in the great atrocities of the 20th century: the ones that were committed on the right and the ones that were committed on the left. But I was interested in it psychologically. What that means was, had I been there, what could have I done to not participate? So that’s what I’ve been trying to figure out; because, for me, what happened in Nazi Germany, and what happened in the Gulag Archipelago, and in Maoist China—many places—was a sufficient definition of 'hell'—convincing, as well.”

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