Every once in a while, people need to be in the presence of things that are really far away.

Siberia is so big, it’s almost more an idea than a place

When the days start to get shorter, I want to be in some nice brick building on the East Coast with the lights glowing in the windows. When the daylight starts changing, I want to be out West.

People in Russia adapt to misery by a deep, deep humor.

There's an idea of the Plains as the middle of nowhere, something to be contemptuous of. But it's really a heroic place.

Everything in Russia is made of cement - phone booths, fence posts and light bulbs.

Sometimes travel is merely an opportunity taken when you can.

Russian humor is to adapt or make some sense or nonsense out of the insanity of their lives.

I don't have a disregard for my reader in humor pieces.

I think what is important for things to be funny is if you the listener, or the reader, get a chance to supply the humor of it yourself.

Words are charms. It's like a song you didn't even know you knew.

... she had painted her lips and was holding in her hollowed hands a beautiful, banal, Eden-red apple.

A sinner’s humanity will cause him to fall from grace again and again, but his human pride, ego, or feeling of unworthiness should not prevent him from seeking God’s forgiveness again and again.

It feels like there is a giant man inside my head blowing up an enormous balloon. The balloon is made of spikes and the man is shouting very loudly.' Egg

She was herself in their company but a very specific version of herself.

Improvisation is about finding the best joke or the silliest way to get something across. Improvising conflict is always fun because you can just go for it.

I've always been, in games, the bad guy. If there was ever cops and robbers I was always a robber.

I know a lot of actors who live with kind of a soundtrack in their lives, even to go to the market. I'm not that kind of actor. I don't listen to songs. I actually like quiet.

Strip away the fear, underneath it's all the same love

I have not tried to tell the people anything. I have shared my views with the people but I have not tried to lead or correct them, assuming they need correction.

I've come to learn that there is a real difference between men and women. It's genetic.