Out of Dostoevsky: Kafka. Out of Tolstoy: Margaret Mitchell. (in conversation, explaining his dislike for Tolstoy)

I'm neither Catholic not Protestant. Protestant sounds good but I don't think I am.

There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them.

Bad literature is a form of treason.

The moment that you place blame somewhere, you undermine your resolve to change anything.

I was quite happy in Arkhangelsk.Subsequently, I was sent to a village. I liked it in its own way because it sounded to me very much like the tradition of a hired man in any world-class poem. That's what I was, a hired man. I was working for a collective farm.

In the West you have every opportunity for civilization to triumph.