Own only what you can always carry with you: know languages, know countries, know people. Let your memory be your travel bag.

In our country they do not permit any information to be X-rayed through and through, nor any discussion to encompass all the facets of a subject. All this is invariably suppressed at the very beginning, so no ray of light should fall on the naked body of truth. And then all this is piled up in one formless heap covering many years, where it languishes for whole decades, until all interest and all means of sorting out the rusty blocks from all this trash are lost.

... any country that is not careful can be seized.

One should not ascribe the evil deeds of individual leaders or political regimes to an innate fault of the Russian people and their country.

A great writer is, so to speak, a secret government in his country