I know not every mom is a secret KGB spy, but every mom has this whole other life. Every dad and every person has this whole other life.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I've met enough KGB colonels in my life.
If kids can forget their own mothers but still have a sense of comrade Lenin, then Soviet power really is here to stay!
My mother is not a CIA agent, but she's an Italian mother, and she'd do anything for her son.
My mom grew up in the Soviet Bloc, and she was a Tiger Mom. We didn't get away with much.
Everybody calls everybody a spy, secretly, in Russia, and everybody is under surveillance. You never feel safe.
The Iron Curtain may be a thing of the past, but Mother Russia is as mysterious as ever.
One of my books, called 'Moscow Station,' revealed that a KGB archivist had defected from Russia to the FBI. And I knew that he was safe, and revealing this would not jeopardize him. But nevertheless, the FBI started a leak investigation.
I wanted to choose somewhere public, because I was scared of the KGB.
My notion of the KGB came from romantic spy stories. I was a pure and utterly successful product of Soviet patriotic education.
I was not extremely patriotic about Mother Russia. I played their game, pretending. You have to deal with, you know, party people, KGB. Horrifying.