Snobbery? But it's only a form of despair.

I'm a bad Jew, a bad Russian, a bad everything.

If I can get somewhere, I'm all right. If not, I'm miserable.

In general, with things unpleasant, the rule is: The sooner you hit bottom, the faster you surface.

I didn't want to be either the cre`me de la cre`me or a martyr. I'd rather be a novelty, especially in a democracy that doesn't understand the language I write in.

Poetry is what is gained in translation.

Language and, presumably, literature are more ancient and inevitable, more durable than any form of social organization. The revulsion, irony, or indifference often expressed by literature toward the state is essentially the reaction of the permanent-better yet, the infinite-against the temporary, against the finite.