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

I'm not trying to be ridiculous or funny, but it was rather pleasant to find yourself in isolation, in solitary.

Try not to pay attention to those who will try to make life miserable for you. There will be a lot of those-in the official capacity as well as the self-appointed. Suffer them if you can't escape them, but once you have steered clear of them, give them the shortest shrift possible. Above all, try to avoid telling stories about the unjust treatment you received at their hands; avoid it no matter how receptive your audience may be. Tales of this sort extend the existence of your antagonists.

The government, the state, they're just objects of jokes rather than serious consideration. I can't possibly take them seriously.

If they had wanted to punish me, they should have kept me in a communal apartment. Then I would have become a wreck.

I grew up in the sort of cultural milieu that always regarded conversations about the political discourse as tremendously low-brow.

Creativity is an unending exercise in uncertainty.