In a strange way, I expected Russia to become more like America since the Soviet Union collapsed, but the reverse is true. America has become more li….

I read real books. On paper. You know, those printed books? I feel like this is the last thing I do to support my industry. I think they smell great,….

If I still lived in Russia, I'd be dead... or a really effective oligarch..

Satire always benefits when evil and stupidity collide..

You want to read a book? That requires introspection. It requires time away from people and time away from the constant need to communicate and to co….

If you stop thinking, if you stop wondering, you die..

Good fiction makes me turn off all the other parts of my brain, so that I become quiet and submissive, entirely at the mercy of the work at hand..

The fading light is us, and we are, for a moment so brief (...) beautiful..

All of my books have an element of a man who is in love with somebody and needs them desperately, not just for procreation but for being able to full….

Italy has sun and tomatoes, and Russia just has real problems..

I was a jackass in many ways. I projected that cruelty towards others, that kid whose hand I was wringing. If I could have hurt a hundred weaklings -….

That's what tyrants do, I guess. They make you covet their attention; they make you confuse attention for mercy..

If you read only one memoir by a disaffected, urban, 20-something Jewish girl this year, make it this one. Shukert rocks the lulav..

You are not what you want. You are what wants you back..

Getting out of Russia was the best thing my parents did. I mean, that country will never amount to anything..

One should learn from a book. Books have a lot to teach us. They have a lot of empathy to impart to us, but they should also be fun. This stuff is fu….

Do not throw away your heart. Keep your heart. Your heart is all that matters ... Throw away your ancestors! ... Throw away your shyness and the ange….

Alcohol causes a lot of problems, and then to solve these problems, you drink more..

Vodka is a wonderful drink. You can drink so much of it without being as hung over as you would if you were drinking one of the brown liquors - the w….

After you publish a book, you become a writer and you're supposed to take it very seriously. You're supposed to show up at your desk - although frank….

She took my hand and pulled me after her, her shoulders giving off a sweet peppermint concoction that the bodies of young women sometimes produce to ….