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.
Ilya EhrenburgUnfortunately, young Russian artists are in a difficult position today. Painting, like all other arts, rests on a continuity of experience. More than anything, young painters and sculptors need to know the works of their immediate elders. Such a continuity does not exist here to a sufficient degree in the visual arts.
Ilya EhrenburgMan is apt to be more moved by the art of his own period, not because it is more perfect, but because it is organically related to him.
Ilya EhrenburgPeople seldom learn from the mistakes of others-not because they deny the value of the past, but because they are faced with new problems.
Ilya EhrenburgKnowledge has outstripped character development, and the young today are given an education rather than an upbringing.
Ilya Ehrenburg