Snobbery? But It's Only A Form Of

After All, It Is Hard To Master Both Life And Work Equally Well. So If You Are Bound To Fake One Of Them, It Had Better Be Life.

There Are Worse Crimes Than Burning Books. One Of Them Is Not Reading Them.

Judge: And What Is Your Occupation In General? Brodsky: Poet, Poet-translator. Judge: And Who Recognized You To Be A Poet? Who Put You In The Ranks Of Poet? Brodsky: No One. And Who Put Me In The Ranks Of Humanity? Judge: Did You Study It?...how To Be A Poet? Did You Attempt To Finish An Insitute Of Higher Learning...where They Prepare...teach Brodsky: I Did Not Think That It Is Given To One By Education. Judge: By What Then? Brodsky: I Think That It Is From God.

Out Of Dostoevsky: Kafka. Out Of Tolstoy: Margaret Mitchell. (in Conversation, Explaining His Dislike For Tolstoy)

In Russia, The Moment A Person Opens His Mouth You Know Where He's From. There's The Uniformity Of Experience Of An Individual In Russia. When You're About 7 Years Old You Get Into School And You Get Put In This Factory Or This Bureaucracy Or Whatever. The Options Are Computable. Here It's Tremendously Diverse.