I adored my mother, and I will always have extraordinary memories about her and remember her, and she opened the doors for me to appreciate arts.

When I'm alone, I work sometimes with music, sometimes without and sometimes just listening to NPR.

I feel very uneasy with a lot of aspects of the Russian life and the Russian people.

I cannot belong to a nonprofit organization because when you receive grants, you have to make such great compromises with your artistic plans.

We lived, until I was 12 or so, in communal apartment with five different families and the same kitchen, in two little - my brother and me and my parents. It was hell, but it was a common thing. My father was not general or admiral, but he was colonel. He was teaching in military academy military topography.

You cannot be happy with your family while being personally unhappy with your work. It's a Catch-22 kind of thing.

I have some Russian friends. But probably only 10 percent. I don't hang out usually in the big Russian communities in Brooklyn and New Jersey.