Jan Tomeš

"A lot of people believed that the Chartists were really the biggest scoundrels and that Havel was a promiscuous alcoholic and drug addict. And that they roasted their children in the oven at home, toasted them on indulgences and such nonsense, legends. And when I came to the 'house' for the first time when I was 16, my brother had just been arrested, I found out that they were such great people... It was very formative for me, and I found it was a whole different world. Everywhere everybody was somehow competing, trying to put on a front, talking differently at home, differently in public, and everybody was nasty to each other - and there I was suddenly in a place, Robeč, where I used to go afterwards. Where it was a completely different world, different people, completely cool. There you could talk openly. I said to myself that this is where I belong, this is my place."

"There were tricks—they told me I had to come with a haircut, or I'd get a lower conduct grade. I wore a turtleneck, my brother trimmed my hair, and I tucked the long strands into the turtleneck. We pulled the hair up and held it in place with a system of threads and clips. I looked like someone from the film The Troops of St. Tropez—they had those odd hairstyles that just covered their ears. And the teacher was completely thrilled: 'You see, Tomeš, when you listen...' She thought she had triumphed. But the next day it didn’t work as well, and by the third day I got tired of it, so I came in with my long hair again, and the whole class had a laugh. And she said: 'You deceived me, Tomeš, you pulled such a trick on me...' When I had the long hair again, I got a grade three in conduct. Those were the kinds of pranks we pulled."