Well, It's a Communist country, and the Communists do not reward personal initiative...except by execution.

Keep at it! The one talent that's indispensable to a writer is persistence. You must write the book, else there is no book. It will not finish itself. Do not try to commit art. Just tell the damned story.

People live longer today than they ever have. They live happier lives, have more knowledge, more information. All this is the result of communications technology. How is any of that bad?

I do not over-intellectualize the production process. I try to keep it simple: Tell the damned story.

An overnight success is ten years in the making.

I'd rather talk to people who do things than complain about other people who do things. I say they're idiots.

Sunday was the normal day for the political awareness session at sea. Ordinarily Putin would have officiated, reading some Pravada editorials, followed by selected quotations from the works of Lenin and a discussion of the lessons to be learned from the readings. It is very much like a church service.