Once I stop being a citizen of the U.S.S.R., I will not stop being a Russian poet.
Interpretation
Identity and artistry can persist beyond political affiliations.
Joseph Brodsky's quote reflects the profound connection between his identity as a Russian and his identity as a poet. He suggests that while political boundaries and citizenship may change, the core of who he is—his artistic expression and heritage—endures, emphasizing that art transcends political contexts and national identities.
In practice
This quote could be used in a discussion about the role of artists in times of political upheaval.
Basically, it's hard for me to assess myself, a hardship not only prompted by the immodesty of the enterprise, but because one is not capable of assessing himself, let alone his work. However, if I were to summarize, my main interest is the nature of time. That's what interests me most of all. What time can do to a man.
One always pulls the trigger out of self-interest and quotes history to avoid responsibility or pangs of conscience.
On the whole, infinity is a fairly palpable aspect of this business of publishing, if only because it extends a dead author's existence beyond the limits he envisioned, or provides a living author with a future he cannot measure. In other words, this business deals with the future which we all prefer to regard as unending.
The invention of ethical and political doctrines, which blossomed into our own social sciences, is a product of times when things appeared manageable. The same goes for the criticism of those doctrines, though as a voice from the past, this criticism proved prophetic.
Try not to pay attention to those who will try to make life miserable for you. There will be a lot of those - in the official capacity as well as the self-appointed.
To put it in plain language, Russia is that country where the name of a writer appears not on the cover of his book, but on the door of his prison cell.
It was at that age that poetry came in search of me.
Wanting to play the guitar was neither a wild dream nor a realistic ambition. It was simply inevitable.
Fiction is the most joyous, beautiful, sophisticated, wonderful thing in the world.
Inscribe all human effort with one word, artistry's haunting curse, the Incomplete!
I have wasted the greater part of my life looking for money and trying to get along, trying to make my work from this terribly expensive paintbox, which is a movie. And I've spent too much energy on things that have nothing to do with making a movie. It's about two percent moviemaking and ninety-eight percent hustling. It's no way to spend a life.
If you take a few days to write an outline, you're just making up scenes that you think will work, that you think will be interesting. But as you write it, other ideas occur - better ideas that have to do with what you're writing.
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