Jiří Matouš

"The painter Jan Zrzavý lived in No. 6, whom I saw very often. And from the window of my room I looked into the backyard of house No. 6, and from that backyard Jan Zrzavý had an exit from his studio right under my window. And I often talked there - not so much with him, but mostly with his pupils or disciples, who were young men. And those houses had the peculiarity of the Castle stairs, that behind the house there was a yard, then up the stairs you went up to the first stair-like garden, then up more stairs you went up to the second garden and from there you could see all of Prague. And that last garden was separated from the castle garden by a wall about two and a half meters high.'“

"I found myself in a cell that was, I don't know, twenty meters, and in the evening there were over sixty of us there. Constant light on. Now, the cell, as it was small, had an entire space constantly free, and there were those iron gates, like when there are parades or when there are state visits, they are put up so that people don't get into the roads. So there it was like this and they put them in a loop to fit it in there. A black man who was there was kind enough to give me a piece of cardboard so I wouldn't lie on the tiles. I was lying like this by the wall and then I was facing that wall and now I sawthat the wall was moving. I was immediately covered in all the fleas and I don't know what."