Few things are as psychologically brutal as chess.

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.

Something coming back from the dead was almost always bad news. Movies taught me that. For every one Jesus you get a million zombies.

If I believed a giant Platypus was coming to liberate humanity and save us all, it would still make more sense than the climate denial people do......

I find that all great directors, and I would include Ben Affleck and Clint Eastwood in that, they have great confidence. And with great confidence comes great freedom for the actor.

Men of genius are often dull and inert in society; as the blazing meteor, when it descends to earth, is only a stone.

I didn't attend any of the court proceedings.

I have not got accustomed to English life. The food is truly disastrous and it rains all the time.

Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky were not classical musicians while they were alive and active, they were the rock stars of their day.

I'm a theatre person, that's who I am. I'm happy to make sojourns into the world of movies but I'm basically a theatre director that potters off and does a couple of movies.

When the heart acknowledges how much pain there is in the mind, it turns like a mother toward a frightened child.

I'm running on hate. When the energy from that ebbs I'll be worthless.