Every master knows that the material teaches the artist.

It’s as much a writer’s concern, who is responsible to his readers for all the books written before him as well as those which will be written after him.

It seems to me that the novel is very much alive as a form. Without any question, every epoch has its own forms, and the novel nowadays cannot resemble that of the nineteenth century. In this domain all experiments are justified, and it is better to write something new clumsily than to repeat the old brilliantly. In the nineteenth century, novels dealt with the fate of a person or of a family; this was linked to life in that period. In our time the destinies of people are interwoven. Whether man recognizes it or not, his fate is much more linked to that of many other people than it used to be.

There is nothing more wonderful than freedom of speech.

Do not count the days, do not count the miles. Count only the Germans you have killed. Kill the German - this is your old mother's prayer. Kill the German - this is what your children beseech you to do. Kill the German - this is the cry of your Russian earth. Do not waver. Do not let up. Kill.

Knowledge has outstripped character development, and the young today are given an education rather than an upbringing.

You could cover the whole earth with asphalt, but sooner or later green grass would break through.