As long as the state permits itself to interfere in the affairs of literature, literature has the right to interfere with the affairs of state.
Joseph BrodskyLife—the way it really is—is a battle not between good and bad, but between bad and worse
Joseph BrodskyIf one's fated to be born in Caesar's Empire, let him live aloof, provincial, by the seashore.
Joseph BrodskyIt's rather an exhilarating feeling. It's 6 or 7 when you get up and go out into the fields wearing your Wellingtons or high boots. You know that at this very hour half the nation does the same thing, which gives you, with the benefit of hindsight, a satisfaction in doing those things, too, a knowledge, a sense of the nation. I was a city boy until then.
Joseph Brodsky