I dedicate this to all those who did not live to tell it. And may they please forgive me for not having seen it all nor remembered it all, for not having divined all of it - from The Gulag Archipelago

The demands of internal growth are incomparably more important to us...than the need for any external expansion of our power.

Own only what you can always carry with you: know languages, know countries, know people. Let your memory be your travel bag. Use your memory! Use your memory! It is those bitter seeds alone which might sprout and grow someday. Look around you - there are people around you. Maybe you will remember one of them all your life and later eat your heart out because you didn't make use of the opportunity to ask him questions. And the less you talk, the more you'll hear.

For us in Russia, communism is a dead dog, while, for many people in the West, it is still a living lion.

A great writer is, so to speak, a secret government in his country

The fewer limitations the artist imposes on his work, the less chance he has for artistic success.

Mourn if you must, but don't stop fighting.