Chess is a unique cognitive nexus, a place where art and science come together in the human mind and are then refined and improved by experience.

I've met enough KGB colonels in my life.

If you wish to succeed, you must brave the risk of failure.

A grandmaster needs to retain thousands of games in his head, for games are to him what the words of their mother tongue are to ordinary people, or notes or scores to musicians.

It was not about losing my mental power; it's about not feeling good about my contribution to the game.

I think Russians today have a distorted picture of capitalism, liberal democracy and market economy.

Losing can persuade you to change what doesn't need to be changed, and winning can convince you everything is fine even if you are on the brink of disaster.

At the end of the day, it's all about money.

Excelling at chess has long been considered a symbol of more general intelligence. That is an incorrect assumption in my view, as pleasant as it might be.

Chess helps you to concentrate, improve your logic. It teaches you to play by the rules and take responsibility for your actions, how to problem solve in an uncertain environment.

When I was preparing for one term's work in the Botvinnik school I had to spend a lot of time on king and pawn endings. So when I came to a tricky position in my own games I knew the winning method.

The voice within is the voice of a sacred soul.

I may be crazy but I'd never smash someone's ankles in because I loved them so much. Compassion runs deep in my blood.

We can wash the skin of our bodies with a bath, but through asana practice we not only purify our blood and cells, we are cleansing the inner body as we practice.

Sometimes there's a general arc that you want to try and get better the longer you do something.

But Nature cast me for the part she found me best fitted for, and I have had to play it, and must play it till the curtain falls.

Everybody is their own critic.

I'm not gonna marry somebody for any reason other than the fact that I've fallen in love with them. Period! Period! And they can eat it, if they wanna think any differently!!

Bliss becomes blissful with practice. In our own bliss the desire, desirer and process of desiring are united - they are one. Desire is fulfilled at its source.

I've always listened to a lot of film music, actually.

Skinny foodie, get away from me.