One question that people always ask at home is never asked here: "What happened to Communism in Russia?" Everybody yawns when a visitor brings it up, because the answer is so obvious to every Russian. The answer is that there never was Communism in Russia; there were only communists.

In any language it is a struggle to make a sentence say exactly what you mean.

What is an editor but a cross between a fall guy and a father figure? arthur koestler

The inner censor of the mind of the true believer completes the work of the public censor; his self-discipline is as tyrannical as the obedience imposed by the regime; he terrorizes his own conscience into submission;he carries his private Iron Curtain inside his skull, to protect his illusions against the intrusion of reality.

Two half-truths do not make a truth, and two half- cultures do not make a culture

Scientists are peeping toms at the keyhole of eternity.

[My father] loved me tenderly and shyly from a distance, and later on took a naive pride in seeing my name in print.