No book about Soviet sacrifice was as strong as the women's stories I heard as a child.

We need a philosophy for humans and nature to live together.

To be in conflict with the authorities is one thing. We Russian writers have got used to that. But to be in conflict with your own people - that is truly terrible.

A man without a memory is only capable of doing evil, nothing else but evil.

We speak Turkish at home, and I can speak the language. I have a lot of family there - I try to fly to Turkey once a year when I have holidays.

Growing up, I didn't come from a musical family. Neither of my parents played an instrument, sang out loud, or listened to the radio with frequency. The record collection in the living room was only about 2 feet long - and that included 4 solid inches of Neil Diamond and Herb Alpert.

I'm not going to break up my family, not for a book.

There is a common theme, though, in the stories I have told, which are usually associations of characters or families that are formed outside of a family circle.