Author

The career of an esthete was nothing I ever intended.

Poetry isn't just different from prose, it's more important for the human species.

I was fortunate enough to write about things I really love, and love can be very analytic.

When you have those two languages - an analytic one like English and a synthetic, very sensual thing like Russian, you get almost a psychotic sense of humanity that permeates nearly everything. It can help you understand, and it can discourage you, because you see how little can be done.

From Joseph Brodsky

You cannot cover a ruin with a page of 'Pravda.'

From Joseph Brodsky

I wrote poems. That is my work. I am convinced... I believe that what I wrote will be useful to people not only now but in future generations.

From Joseph Brodsky

Poems, novels - these things belong to the nation, to the culture, and the people.

From Joseph Brodsky

I belong to the Russian language. As to the state, from my point of view, the measure of a writer's patriotism is not oaths from a high platform, but how he writes in the language of the people among whom he lives.

From Joseph Brodsky

Although I am losing my Soviet citizenship, I do not cease to be a Russian poet.

From Joseph Brodsky

My poems getting published in Russia doesn't make me feel in any fashion, to tell you the truth. I'm not trying to be coy, but it doesn't tickle my ego.

From Joseph Brodsky

Joseph Brodsky

Notable Quotes

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