. . . compared to us our Western friends are sheep and adolescents. They prove with their articles that they know what socialism is; we prove it with our ulcers. After reading a few books, they declare it a paradise; after a few more books, they say it is hell. They don’t know what it is when they visit party secretaries; even now, when they are interviewing dissidents, they still don’t.

—George Konrád, The Loser