Conversations are necessary for clarity and life; to have one, it is necessary to listen.

The texts comprising this book were originally conversations, mostly free of any distinct agenda or ideological shading. I tried to ask people about whatever I found interesting at the time and they responded as they saw fit. Frequently, we strayed from the main course of discussion to reminisce, speculate or just roam.

All of the interviews included here were taken live in the years between 2016 and 2020. They have previously been published in various places in their Lithuanian translation. The texts here were transcribed from the original audio recordings. The conversation with Vytautas Landsbergis was translated from the Lithuanian original. In places, our words were edited for clarity and brevity.

Feeling that these encounters have in some way contributed to my understanding of people and the world, I have chosen to share them with an Englishspeaking audience. It seems that, often, the meaning of a dialogue lies not in the words spoken, but somewhere in between, or perhaps elsewhere altogether. I hope readers are moved to contribute their own meanings and to give new life to these vignettes, which are themselves now ever more remote in time.

- Ignas Staškevičius