Global warming is more of a blessing than a curse.

The best life for a writer is the life which helps him write the best books he can.

The more you learn, the less you fear. "Learn" not in the sense of academic study, but in the practical understanding of life.

Time...give us enough time and our best-supported decisions will seem wobbly, our certainties whimsical.

Did you know that there is no exact rhyme in the Russian language for the word 'pravda'? Ponder and weigh this insufficiency in your mind. Doesn't that just echo down the canyons of your soul?

When you are young, you think that the old lament the deterioration of life because this makes it easier for them to die without regret. When you are old, you become impatient with the way in which the young applaud the most insignificant improvements … while remaining heedless of the world’s barbarism. I don’t say things have got worse; I merely say the young wouldn’t notice if they had. The old times were good because then we were young, and ignorant of how ignorant the young can be.

I have an instinct for survival, for self-preservation.