If one's fated to be born in Caesar's Empire, let him live aloof, provincial, by the seashore.

What should I say about life? That it's long and abhors transparence.

There's nothing as dear as the sight of ruins.

If there is anything good about exile, it is that it teaches one humility. It accelerates one’s drift into isolation, an absolute perspective. Into the condition at which all one is left with is oneself and one’s language, with nobody or nothing in between. Exile brings you overnight where it would normally take a lifetime to go.

I don't have principles. I have nerves.

Bad literature is a form of treason.

In Russia, the moment a person opens his mouth you know where he's from. There's the uniformity of experience of an individual in Russia. When you're about 7 years old you get into school and you get put in this factory or this bureaucracy or whatever. The options are computable. Here it's tremendously diverse.