My work is my life, and my life is my work. I invented this assault rifle to defend my country. Today, I am proud that it has become for many synonymous with liberty.

I am still ready to shake hands with anyone who designs a better assault rifle than mine.

It is the Germans who are responsible for the fact that I became a fabricator of arms. If not for them, I would have constructed agricultural machines. (...) If someone asks me how I can sleep at night knowing that my arms have killed millions of people, I respond that I have no problem sleeping, my conscience is clean. I constructed arms to defend my country.

It is painful for me to see when criminal elements of all kinds fire from my weapon.

I'm proud of my invention, but I'm sad that it is used by terrorists.

I sleep well. It's the politicians who are to blame for failing to come to an agreement and resorting to violence.

My spiritual pain is unbearable. I keep having the same unsolved question: if my rifle claimed people's lives, then can it be that I a Christian and an Orthodox believer, was to blame for their deaths?