Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
For a writer only one form of patriotism exists: his attitude toward language.
I always adhered to the idea that God is time, or at least that His spirit is.
Perhaps art is simply an organism's reaction against its retentive limitations.
I am a patriot, but I must say that English poetry is the richest in the world.
American poetry to me is a sort of relentless, nonstop sermon on human autonomy.
Although I am losing my Soviet citizenship, I do not cease to be a Russian poet.
I had been imprisoned three times and had twice been incarcerated in a madhouse.
On the whole, love comes with the speed of light; separation, with that of sound.
What your foes do derives its significance or consequence from the way you react.
Poems, novels - these things belong to the nation, to the culture, and the people.
Poetry isn't just different from prose, it's more important for the human species.
I am neither an Occidental writer nor a Russian writer. I am an accidental writer.
Once I stop being a citizen of the U.S.S.R., I will not stop being a Russian poet.
In the 20th century, imprisonment of writers practically comes with the territory.
I'm neither Catholic not Protestant. Protestant sounds good but I don't think I am.
I remember rather little of my life, and what I do remember is of small consequence.
Poetry is rather an approach to things, to life, than it is typographical production.
Poetry seems to be the only weapon able to beat language, using language's own means.
What I like about cities is that everything is king size, the beauty and the ugliness.
The poetic notion of infinity is far greater than that which is sponsored by any creed.
I don't want to dive into that mud slide, which is what I consider the literary process.
The moment that you place blame somewhere, you undermine your resolve to change anything.
Life—the way it really is—is a battle not between good and bad, but between bad and worse
I'm 100 percent Jewish by blood, but by education I'm nothing. By affiliation I'm nothing.
I was fortunate enough to write about things I really love, and love can be very analytic.
Perhaps the best proof of the Almighty's existence is that we never know when we are to die.
A writer is defined by the language in which he writes, and I would stick to that definition.
Life - the way it really is - is a battle not between Bad and Good but between Bad and Worse.
If one's fated to be born in Caesar's Empire, let him live aloof, provincial, by the seashore.
The eye identifies itself not with the body it belongs to but with the object of its attention.
One who writes a poem writes it because the language prompts, or simply dictates, the next line.
In general, with things unpleasant, the rule is: The sooner you hit bottom, the faster you surface.
A writer is seldom satisfied with the condition he finds himself in. We're all given to fretting a lot.
To translate poetry, one has to possess some art, at the very least the art of stylistic re-embodiment.
Good style in prose is always hostage to the precision, speed, and laconic intensity of poetic diction.
It's a maddening thing in itself to look at an old poem of yours. To translate it is even more maddening.
I sit in the dark. And it would be hard to figure out which is worse; the dark inside, or the darkness out.
Bookstores should be located not only on campuses or on main drags, but at the assembly plant's gates, also.
Prison is essentially a shortage of space made up for by a surplus of time; to an inmate, both are palpable.
I belong to Russian literature, but I am an American citizen, and I think it's the best possible combination.
Unfortunately, a human being is able to comprehend only that amount of evil which he is able to commit himself.
An ethical man doesn't need a consensus of his allies in order to act against something he finds reprehensible.
Translation is not original creation - that is what one must remember. In translation, some loss is inevitable.
I'm not trying to be ridiculous or funny, but it was rather pleasant to find yourself in isolation, in solitary.
Cherish your human connections: your relationships with friends and family. Even your super weirdo creep cousin.
For some odd reason, the expression 'death of a poet' always sounds somewhat more concrete than 'life of a poet.'
Out of Dostoevsky: Kafka. Out of Tolstoy: Margaret Mitchell. (in conversation, explaining his dislike for Tolstoy)
If they had wanted to punish me, they should have kept me in a communal apartment. Then I would have become a wreck.
One always pulls the trigger out of self-interest and quotes history to avoid responsibility or pangs of conscience.
Unlike life, a work of art never gets taken for granted: it is always viewed against its precursors and predecessors.