When the whole discussion of "developing a national idea" hastily began in post-Soviet Russia, I tried to pour cold water on it with the objection that, after all the devastating losses we had experienced, it would be quite sufficient to have just one task: the preservation of a dying people.

Only the first swath cut by the scythe is difficult.

A poet cannot be a Party member ... without paying the price.

A drop in the ocean has no fear of a hurricane.

The essence of life will never be captured by even the greatest of formulas.

The line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either - but right through every human heart - and through all human hearts. This line shifts. Inside us, it oscillates with the years. And even within hearts overwhelmed by evil, one small bridgehead of good is retained.

I would rather have the United States as the world's policeman than the Soviet Union as the world's jailer.