Gary Shteyngart

Silence has been destroyed, but also the idea that it's important to learn how another person thinks, to enter the mind of another person. The whole idea of empathy is gone. We are now part of this giant machine where every second we have to take out a device and contribute our thoughts and opinions. ”

The best thing about the iPhone is this that tells me where I am all the time. There's never a need to feel lost anymore. ”

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 connect. ”

A lot of the ways of advertising a book - the cover, whether somebody sees it on a subway or sees it in a bookstore - those things are going to rapidly diminish as we move to an electronic model. ”

That's what I always liked about science fiction - you can make the world end. Humour is my multiple warhead delivery system. ”

Communications devices were always used to effect change, to effect revolution. Telephone, telegraph - these all seemed like very big enhancements at the time. ”

I write almost entirely in bed or on a couch with my feet up on the coffee table. I feel most creative when I'm looking out the window, and my bed and couch have nice views of the New York skyline. ”

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. ”