Even the most broad-minded of us can embrace only that part of truth into which our own snout has blundered.

A genius doesn't adjust his treatment of a theme to a tyrant's taste

It was only when I lay there on the rotting prison straw that I sensed within myself the first stirrings of good. Gradually it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes not between states nor between social classes nor between political parties, but right through every human heart, through all human hearts. And that is why I turn back to the years of my imprisonment and say, sometimes to the astonishment of those about me, bless you, prison, for having been a part of my life.

We are all human, and our senses are quicker to prompt us than our reason. Every man gives off a scent, and that scent tells you how to act before your head does.

Of course God is endlessly multi-dimensional so every religion that exists on earth represents some face, some side of God.

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 think the gap between rich and poor is an extremely dangerous phenomenon and needs the immediate attention of the state.