My poems getting published in Russia doesn't make me feel in any fashion, to tell you the truth. I'm not trying to be coy, but it doesn't tickle my ego.

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

I'm 100 percent Jewish by blood, but by education I'm nothing. By affiliation I'm nothing.

I am losing my Soviet citizenship, I do not cease to be a Russian poet. I believe that I will return. Poets always return in flesh or on paper.

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

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

For a writer only one form of patriotism exists: his attitude toward language.