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There is no man who desires as passionately as a Russian. If we could imprison a Russian desire beneath a fortress, that fortress would explode.

Russia itself is an extremely complex country, and sometimes I feel like all of that comes back to haunt me. I can see why so many Russian writers were so tortured.

I read Russian literature a lot.

I didn't choose Russia but Russia chose me. I had been fascinated from an early age by the culture, the language, the literature and the history to the place.

I feel very uneasy with a lot of aspects of the Russian life and the Russian people.

The Russian yearning for the meaning of life is the major theme of our literature, and this is the real point of our intelligentsia's existence.

From the country with limited hope to grow your own business and express your own personality, Russia has become the land of significant opportunity.

The great drama of Russian history has been between its state and society. Put simply, Russia has always had too much state and not enough society.

The whole world recognizes Russia's cultural achievements. It is impossible to imagine the world culture without Russian culture, without our music and literature.

There was something about the idea of Russia that I found very intriguing, and I think I had romanticized it a lot.