Nikolai Stanislofsky quotes from Oz

Nikolai

When life is good, 'tis better not to question why.

Nikolai Stanislofsky

Kosygin is no pal of mine. I'm a Jew. He's Cossack. In my community, he's feared for his savagery. You Sicilians think you're so tough. He would cut out your heart, eat it, and not think twice.

Nikolai

We Russians, we are suspicious of everyone.

Busmalis

You're a Russian?

Nikolai

Yes.

Busmalis

From Russia?

Nikolai

Yes.

Busmalis

You were born in Russia?

Nikolai

(annoyed) Yes!

Unlike you, in Russia I was not a criminal. I was an educator. After the Soviets fell, things got so bleak in Moscow I decided to leave, to come to America.

Nikolai Stanislofsky

For a better life, right?

Yes, for me and my wife. But we did not find a better life. I couldn't get employed teaching.

Nikolai Stanislofsky

Must have been terrible.

Then I got this job painting a house, the house of Leonid Rodzinsky.

Nikolai Stanislofsky

He was in the Organizatsya.

Yes. He treated me like shit, always making fun. Calling me "professor" and ordering me to clean his toilets. One day, he kicked me with his boot in front of my wife. I strangled him on the spot.

Nikolai Stanislofsky

It's closing time?

Yes.

Nikolai Stanislofsky

All right, I'll go.

Not till I finish my story.

Nikolai Stanislofsky

Strange. All this time, you've barely said two words. Now you're a regular bottum.

It takes me time to warm up to people. I feel very close to you. I was possessed by guilt for killing Rodzinsky but I got a reputation for being ruthless. The Organizatsya hired me to exterminate someone else. The second time was easy.

Nikolai Stanislofsky

Yuri, please. I don't want to hear this.

The third time, no problem at all.

Nikolai Stanislofsky

Yuri, please.

At last count, I murdered at least 49 people. You have the honor of being my 50th.

What do you want?

The niggers are up to something.

The niggers are always up to something. So are you.

Look, I know there's been a lot of shit between us all over the years but we gotta put that aside. At least for now. We gotta be bound by the one thing that joins us all together. The color of our skin.

Tobias Beecher

I am not gonna listen to this shit. C'mon, Chris.

Wait a sec. I wanna hear what he has to say.

Nikolai Stanislofsky

I'm Russian, and I'm a Jew. But I'm also white. So Schillinger, do you accept me as a part of your group?

Yes.

Tobias Beecher

Aw, fuck.

A little birdie told me a secret about you and I just came to see if it was true. You got a cell phone?

Nikolai

No.

Oh. Then I guess that's what I get for listening to little birdies. Because if you did have a cell phone, you'd let me borrow it. You'd share, right?

Nikolai

Share? No. Rent, maybe, if I had one, which I don't.

I know. You told me, and I believe you. Because that's just the kind of friendship we have, right?

Nikolai

Right.

So sorry to bother you.

Nikolai

Not a problem.

Bye, Nikolai.