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I'm not going to get into the ring with Tolstoy.

I'm never going to be Tolstoy.

You don't often get a proposal to do Tolstoy for a really interesting director - that's easy to say yes to.

There are two men in Tolstoy. He is a mystic and he is also a realist. He is addicted to the practice of a pietism that for all its sincerity is nothing if not vague and sentimental; and he is the most acute and dispassionate of observers, the most profound and earnest student of character and emotion.

A great writer is a great writer... Tolstoy was not a woman, but 'Anna Karenina' is still a pretty good book.

When I was in prison, I was wrapped up in all those deep books. That Tolstoy crap - people shouldn't read that stuff.

I have never read any Tolstoy. I felt badly about this until I read a Bill Simmons column where he confessed that he'd never seen 'The Big Lebowski.' Simmons, it should be pointed out, has seen everything. He said that everyone needs to have skipped at least one great cultural touchstone.

Everyone writes in Tolstoy's shadow, whether one feels oneself to be Tolstoyan or not.

In 'A Confession,' Tolstoy found meaning that he could hold on to, and he lived for another 30 years.