Legasov: Are you all right?

Khomyuk: They didn't hurt me. They let a pregnant woman in with—oh, it doesn't matter. They were stupid. I was stupid. Dyatlov don't talk to me. Akimov, yes, Toptunov, yes, but... Valery, Akimov... his face was gone.

Legasov: You want to stop?

Khomyuk: Is that a choice I even have?

Legasov: Do you think the fuel will actually melt through the concrete pad?

Khomyuk: I don't know. A forty-percent chance, maybe.

Legasov: I said fifty. [chuckles] Either way, the numbers mean the same thing: ‘Maybe.' Maybe the core will melt through to the groundwater. Maybe the miners I've told to dig under the reactor will save millions of lives. Maybe I'm killing them for nothing. I don't want to do this anymore. I want to stop. But I can't. I don't you have a choice any more than I do. I think, despite the stupidity, the lies, even this, you are compelled. The problem has been assigned, and you will stop at nothing until you find an answer. Because that is who you are.

Khomyuk: A lunatic, then.

Legasov: A scientist.”
Tagged: lunatic, Scientist

Explore more quotes:


About the author

This page was created by our editorial team. Each page is manually curated, researched, collected, and issued by our staff writers. Quotes contained on this page have been double checked for their citations, their accuracy and the impact it will have on our readers.

Kelly Peacock is an accomplished poet and social media expert based in Brooklyn, New York. Kelly has a Bachelor's degree in creative writing from Farieligh Dickinson University and has contributed to many literary and cultural publications. Kelly assists on a wide variety of quote inputting and social media functions for Quote Catalog. Visit her personal website here.

Kendra Syrdal is a writer, editor, partner, and senior publisher for The Thought & Expression Company. Over the last few years she has been personally responsible for writing, editing, and producing over 30+ million pageviews on Thought Catalog.