None of us older writers had gone through such a school. We are all self-taught. And, of course, there is always, in such a school, the danger of goose-stepping, uniformed ranks. But the Serapion Brethren have already, it seems to me, outgrown this danger. Each of them has his own individuality and his own handwriting. The common thing they have derived from the studio is the art of writing with ninety-proof ink, the art of eliminating everything that is superfluous, which is, perhaps, more difficult than writing.

The only means of ridding man of crime is ridding him of freedom.

All of life in its complexity and beauty is forever minted in the gold of words.

We need writers who fear nothing. ("Our Goal")

Is it not clear, however, that bliss and envy are the numerator and denominator of the fraction called happiness?

If we have no heretics we must invent them, for heresy is essential to health and growth.

What we need in literature today are vast philosophic horizons... we need the most ultimate, the most fearsome, the most fearless "Why?" and "What next?".