Anatoly Rybakov

For a professional writer in the Soviet Union, it works this way. First, you have to have something to say - that's the main thing. Second, it's a matter of who publishes you. If your book has real stuff in it, readers will ferret it out, even in a Siberian journal.

A writer's main tool is his memory - his own memory, the collective memory of his people. And the strongest memory is the one that is created by a wound to the heart.

The comforts come from my movie and television writing. It is unusual to live this well simply from books.

All my books are adventures, but they also have a social viewpoint.

Death solves all problems - no man, no problem.