Persecution mania is still around. In your writing, in your exchanges with people, meeting people who are in Russian affairs, Russian literature, etcetera.

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.

Language is a social art.

There's something really great and romantic about being poor and sleeping on couches.

I was taken by a morsell, saies the fish. [I was taken by a morsel, says the fish.]

The misery of us, that are born great, We are forced to woo because none dare woo us.

I think I want to pursue a movie career and maybe even pursue some theatre.

People love the chaos in my brain, but I'm terrified of it.

Wine is earth's answer to the sun.

We ever long for visions of beauty, We ever dream of unknown worlds.

I want my photos to be fresh and urgent. A good photograph should be a call to arms.

I had older brothers and sisters who were high achievers, and I felt different, misunderstood by my family. That's not my family's fault; it was my perception.