In Russia one can be as pure as can be and still lose everything in a flash and end up in prison.

Nothing has changed in Russia since Ivan the Terrible when it comes to the divide between the people and the state. The state demands a sacred willingness to make sacrifices from the people.

The West should be even more vocal in insisting that the Russians respect human rights.

The Khodorkovsky case is typical of the "oprichnina" - the system of oppression.

I'm not a prophet or a teacher, I just ask questions. I don't think a writer should be a teacher, but should know how to pose the questions and explain the problems.

I have Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin to thank that a Russian writer can not only write anything he wants, but also publish it.

As a child I perceived violence as a sort of natural law. In the totalitarian Soviet Union, oppression held everything together. It was the sinister energy of our country.

The worst thing that can happen to Russia is indifference in the West - that is, if it were interested in nothing but oil and gas.

The Russian writer Vladimir Nabokov once said: In a Democracy, portraits of a nation's leader should never exceed the size of a postage stamp. That won't happen so quickly in Russia.

Everyone in Russia must awaken the citizen within himself.

In Russia only those who are loyal to the people in power can become wealthy.

Such grief might be to them quite delicious, a delicacy.

Theory is like a book.It's full of meaningless words, a few want to read it and where stays the movie.

I never listen to what people tell me and I can't read. The only way I know what is right and wrong is the way I feel about things. If I feel bad, it's wrong. If I feel good, it's right.

When I was in high school I moved from the big city to a tiny village of 500 people in Vermont. It was like The Waltons!

I am so happy to be at Barclays Center. When I saw Brett Yormark, I thought to myself that he and his brother Michael are doing an amazing job.

The worst misstep one can make in design is to solve the wrong problem.

Burned and squashed to death in a silver vat of soup. There must be worst ways to go. But not many.

The Ultimate and Highest leave taking is leaving God for GOD, leaving your notion of God for an Experience of That which transcends all notions.

I don't know how to cook, but I do know how to bake.

It's still not easy to find roles that offer more complex images of women.