“It would have been difficult to design a path out of communism worse than the one that has been followed.”

How can you expect a man who’s warm to understand one who’s cold?

A man is happy so long as he chooses to be happy and nothing can stop him.

Anyone who has proclaimed violence his method inexorably must choose lying as his principle.

Man has set for himself the goal of conquering the world but in the processes loses his soul.

Our government declared that it is conducting some kind of great reforms. In reality, no real reforms were begun and no one at any point has declared a coherent programme.

Blow the dust off the clock. Your watches are behind the times. Throw open the heavy curtains which are so dear to you – you do not even suspect that the day has already dawned outside.

A state of war only serves as an excuse for domestic tyranny.

Justice is conscience, not a personal conscience but the conscience of the whole of humanity. Those who clearly recognize the voice of their own conscience usually recognize also the voice of justice.

Literature becomes the living memory of a nation.

Not everything has a name. Some things lead us into a realm beyond words.

Talent is always conscious of its own abundance, and does not object to sharing.

If one is forever cautious, can one remain a human being?

Everything you add to the truth subtracts from the truth.

First would be the literary side, then the spiritual and philosophical. The political side is required principally because of the necessity of the current Russian position.

For a country to have a great writer is like having a second government. That is why no regime has ever loved great writers, only minor ones.

I can say without affectation that I belong to the Russian convict world no less than I do to Russian literature. I got my education there, and it will last forever.

I like a face that hasn’t been tampered with.

It has perhaps always been the case that the waging of peace is the hardest form of leadership of all.

For me, it’s always been so obvious that the less we can edit our lives and more we show how normal we all are, the better.

I’ve been musically inclined since I picked up an instrument in the fourth grade. I just really appreciate music.

Mythology can be used, and has been used, even to re-state, you know, the very urgent problems of the world.

I think it’s so interesting which ways your career can go. I would have been a completely different actor doing a completely different story, and I would have missed ‘Lady Macbeth.’

I have been aware all the time that my peoples, spread far and wide throughout every continent and ocean in the world, were united to support me in the task to which I have now been dedicated with such solemnity.

And I’ve been wearing specs since I was three.