Writers seem mesmerized by the state - the temporal entity. The word 'perestroika' is impressed somehow on our minds. But that is not the duty of a writer.

The imprisoning of a writer is the same as the burning of a book.

I belong to the Russian language. As to the state, from my point of view, the measure of a writer's patriotism is not oaths from a high platform, but how he writes in the language of the people among whom he lives.

In the 20th century, imprisonment of writers practically comes with the territory.

For a writer only one form of patriotism exists: his attitude toward language.

A writer is seldom satisfied with the condition he finds himself in. We're all given to fretting a lot.