In Russia one can be as pure as can be and still lose everything in a flash and end up in prison.

The worst thing that can happen to Russia is indifference in the West - that is, if it were interested in nothing but oil and gas.

As a storyteller I was influenced by the Moscow underground, where it was common to be apolitical.

In Russia no one is surprised when an official accepts a bribe while at the same time portraying the state as some sacred entity to which the bourgeois should pay homage. This all sounds absurd. But for Russians it is completely normal.

In Russia there are special people who are permitted to do anything. They are the sacrificial priests of power. Anyone who is not a member of this group has no clout with the state.

The bureaucracy has grown such powerful roots in Russia, and corruption is so widespread, that people from opposition have no interest in changing anything.

I have Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin to thank that a Russian writer can not only write anything he wants, but also publish it.