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

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

What I like about cities is that everything is king size, the beauty and the ugliness.

Life—the way it really is—is a battle not between good and bad, but between bad and worse

It would be enough for me to have the system of a jury of twelve versus the system of one judge as a basis for preferring the U.S. to the Soviet Union. I would prefer the country you can leave to the country you cannot.

The delirium and horror of the East. The dusty catastrophe of Asia. Green only on the banner of the Prophet. Nothing grows here except mustaches.

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.