I am losing my Soviet citizenship, I do not cease to be a Russian poet. I believe that I will return. Poets always return in flesh or on paper.

Cherish your human connections: your relationships with friends and family.

What I like about cities is that everything is king size, the beauty and the ugliness.

Twentieth-century Russian literature has produced nothing special except perhaps one novel and two stories by Andrei Platonov, who ended his days sweeping streets.

How delightful to find a friend in everyone.

There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them.

For darkness restores what light cannot repair.

I sit in the dark. And it would be hard to figure out which is worse; the dark inside, or the darkness out.

Geography blended with time equals destiny.

Life—the way it really is—is a battle not between good and bad, but between bad and worse

Poetry is what is gained in translation.

Trustworthiness is a mark of a success-minded person. To be seen as trustworthy is a great compliment. When people trust you, they expect that you will honor their trust.

You’re scaring the dog, ” Trish pointed out. She rarely called me by name. They do that inprisoner of war camps, I’ve heard. Depersonalization.

It is said that a wise man who stands firm is a statesman and a foolish man who stands firm is a catastrophe.

Any inhibition must be wrong, since inevitably in the end it causes neurosis and insanity.

I have never been any place where I was not first invited. And upon invitation, if I feel that there is potential for making some contribution to humanity, I will comply in spite of being tired.

They say it only takes an instant to have a dream; a dream can be compressed into hardtack.

Let muggles manage without us!

Our role in life is to bring the light of our own souls to the dim places around us.

I think the words you stop yourself from saying are the ones that will haunt you the longest.

I don't want there to always be this stigma of the "female" artist. "Oh, what does it feel like to be a female doing something?" That hurts me.