Professor, PhDr. Ivan Vyskočil

„Komunistické režimy většinou prodělávaly, protože výdělek umožňuje pochybování, riskování. A komunistické režimy v podnikání většinou neriskoval, ty chtěly mít od začátku všechno hotové.“

„Totalitní režim nemůže mít smysl pro humor, protože humor znamená zpětnou vazbu: obrátit se, vrátit se nazpátek a zase vyjít dopředu. Čili humor chce pohyb, ne zůstat na jednom místě. Humor nechce tvrdit, chce pochybovat. Humor vlastně chce dělat si legraci. A než člověk přijde na to, co to ta legrace je, trvá to někdy hrozně dlouho. Někdy trvá hrozně dlouho, než se přijde na to, co to je šibeniční humor – a u šibeničního humoru to obyčejně začíná! Něco takového bolševik nesnáší, protože bolševik chce mít hned od začátku hotovo a chce mít jistotu, že tak je to nejenom správně, ale že to je také produktivní, výnosné.“

„Když mi bylo přibližně patnáct, byli studenti gymnázii a středních škol organizováni jako Technische Nothilfe. Chodili uklízet trosky na Kačerově, na nábřeží, ve Vysočanech. Tam všude jsme byli jako studenti delegováni hledat mrtvoly. Bál jsem se najít mrtvého, ale i to se mi stávalo…“

“I remember the war – you had to be careful where and to whom you spoke. The same thing then remained true for the following forty years. When we were at the secondary school, at the drama conservatoire, we held nightly fire watches from the fourth grade onwards. We were divided into groups of three. We always looked forward to it, because we were locked up in the school building at night, and naturally we did some pranks. We went to see the drawing classroom, then we yelled in the hallways, and we simply did things that were not allowed at the time when the teaching staff and the principal and the other students were present, and when we just had to walk the hallways silently and tread lightly. So this was kind of refreshing, in a way. The night fire watches were held in 1943-1944, and night air raids were reported at that time, too, together with some other less pleasant things like having to go to hide in a shelter and dealing with these things, writing reports, and so on. Yes, that was in 1944, and I was fifteen and I was in the fourth and fifth grade of secondary school.”

“My living at home in Spořilov actually ended with my graduation from secondary school. That was in 1948, which was also the year when the communist coup d’état happened. Not only had my childhood thus come to an end, but also that feeling of freedom. What followed was actually very thrilling. It was a way of keeping one’s character in the time or environment which did not give many opportunities for that. That was at the conservatoire, as well as later at the psychology department of the Faculty of Arts.”

“I thought: ‘Fine, I will work with you, and we will try to do it for as long as they permit us.’ He replied: ‘People don’t come to see the things I do. Let’s do it together in another way so that people start coming.’ I told him: ‘I don’t know how, but we will give it a try. We need to think of a name, we need to give a name to what we do.’ We thus decided that we would call it ‘Text-appeal.’ This word was suggestive of another alluring word, but we meant it seriously with our texts. We wanted to write texts which would be appealing and attractive, which would somehow make an impact on people. To our surprise, it began to be received well.”