The hardest thing of all is when pain is hidden behind a mask of calm.

Nobody can be forced to commit an act of villainy. You can't push anybody into the mud; people always step into it themselves.

There is no abstract Evil; you have to understand that! Its roots are here, all around us, in this herd that goes on chewing and having a good time only an hour after a murder!

An assassin can be found for every president. And for every prophet there are a thousand interpreters to distort the essence of the religion, to replace the bright flame with the heat of the inquisitors' pyres. The time came when every book was cast into the fire, when every symphony was reduced to a popular tune and played in all the drinking dens. A sound philosophical basis could be set in place under any vile nonsense.

That's the way it goes sometimes: in order to help your friends, first you have to help your enemy. Better get used to it.

When people love each other, when they find each other out of thousands and millions of people. It's always destiny.

Above all, translators must be native speakers. It’s not because they speak the language better – I understand that sometimes a foreigner can learn a language better than native speakers. It has more to do with intimate knowledge of the society for which the book is being translated.