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.

It takes time for the absent to assume their true shape in our thoughts. After death they take on a firmer outline and then cease to change.

A deep, black grief gripped Robert Kennedy in the months following his brother's assassination. He lost weight, fell into melancholy silences, wore his brother's clothes, smoked the cigars his brother had liked, and imitated his mannerisms.

The timing of death, like the ending of a story, gives a changed meaning to what preceded it.

What I try to get physically healthy people to understand is that they're going to die someday. There is no way out. And dying isn't failure, but not living is, so make use of your time. Don't keeping waiting.