“Life is inevitably related to a certain level of risk.”

The path towards a free society has not been simple. There are tragic and glorious pages in our history.

There are fundamentals of democracy, and they should be understood universally in different countries.

What is a Rechtsstaat? It is obedience to the existing law.

Between major countries, there certainly always are some common ground and points of tension.

My English is very bad.

Russia and China are very natural partners. We are neighbors with an immense common border.

Sometimes it is necessary to be lonely in order to prove that you are right.

Above all, we should acknowledge that the collapse of the Soviet Union was the major geopolitical disaster of the century.

Prisons where people can’t even work is the worst punishment you can think of. And I don’t think we should put all convicts in such facilities where people are deprived of their freedom.

Russia’s big owo.

Policies are being pursued that place on the same level a multi-child family and a same-sex partnership, a faith in God and a belief in Satan. This is the path to degradation.

We must not forget that God created us equal.

Libya is divided into tribes and clans.

We’re no longer in the Cold War. Eavesdropping on friends is unacceptable.

There are both things in international law: the principle of territorial integrity and right to self-determination.

Russia is a part of European culture. Therefore, it is with difficulty that I imagine NATO as an enemy.

How I grew up, everybody was telling me, “You can’t do this, you can’t get tattoos, you’ve got to look a certain way.” Now, I’m like, “Why?”

My understanding of the creative process is simply that all cultures and all concerns meet at a certain point, the human point in which everything is related to one another. That has been my creative experience.

In various and different circumstances certain objects and individuals are going to turn out to be vital. The wager of survival cannot, by its nature, reveal which, in advance of events.

There’s a certain spiritual nature and something of the mind that we can’t measure. We can’t find it. With all our sophisticated equipment, we cannot monitor or define it, and yet it’s there.

In a certain sense a writer is ‘selected’ by his subject – his subject being the consciousness of his own era.

Formerly I regarded it miserable business to be a Christian, but now I think differently. Once I thought certain things delightful, now I think them vile. Once I thought other things utterly worthless, now I think them most precious. That is a change of mind, and that is repentance.

My hunch is yes. It would certainly do something for those who are most ruthless, who tend to make others most miserable.

I don’t take anything personal. I just have a certain file in my head, so Earthlings must be careful with what they say.