I spent seven years writing The Free World. There are a lot of things I accomplished there that I'm very proud of, but I didn't want to spend another seven years writing a book like that.

When writing dialogue, I hear it in both Russian and English, and try to find a language that combines the two.

Why are some people highly principled and willing to do anything for their principles, while most of us are not? And I am willing to not only ask, but also answer the question.

Language is a personality as well. People are different when they speak different languages.

People everywhere feel differently at different times of their lives.

I think having an uncompromising ideology eventually forces you out of the norm.

We are taught that we can be better than we are. But is there a limit to how good we can be?

In my experience of women, women have a greater capacity. Maybe women, even very pragmatic ones, are less guarded about showing emotions.

We all have some ideological quotient in ourselves. And I think it does guide who we are.

Nothing is easy in writing. I don't think for anyone. But dialogue is probably what comes most naturally to me.

When you write a book, you want to have fidelity to the character. Characters and their emotions guide the structure of the novel.

True love is not so much a matter of romance as it is a matter of anxious concern for the well-being of one's companion.

The life we’re given is on a thread, so wear it well.

You have to be alive in order to live.

Ultimately evil is done not so much by evil people, but by good people who do not know themselves and who do not probe deeply.

The roller coaster came to a stop and a good friend got off, but what a ride we'd taken together. It had been one hell of a trip.

A person's fears are lighter when the danger is at hand.

Engineering stimulates the mind.

All Patsy Cline had to do was sing somebody else’s song and her version would outsell theirs because it would be so good!

Analyzing a concept can (perhaps) tell you what the concept means (at least means to some philosophers), but it does not tell you anything about whether the concept is true of anything in the world.

I think anonymity on the internet has to go away.