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I read Russian literature a lot.

Russian is such a tough and complex language that I am happy enough to understand everything and read most things pretty well, but, without constant practice, my speech is not what I wish it was, and I would sooner write in crayon than write a letter in Russian.

I'd read books in Russian, and they would take me forever. I wanted to write a book that would last and would not be superficial. Siberian-travel writing is its own genre.

For a professional writer in the Soviet Union, it works this way. First, you have to have something to say - that's the main thing. Second, it's a matter of who publishes you. If your book has real stuff in it, readers will ferret it out, even in a Siberian journal.

Yes, I can speak a bit and I can read and write in Russian. I learned it from my grandmother who raised me with all the Russian fairytales.

Textbooks are Soviet propaganda.

I think somebody who speaks the language is going to notice immediately that I'm not Russian.

I took a speed-reading course and read War and Peace in twenty minutes. It involves Russia.

Much that we read of Russia is imagination and desire only.

I am neither an Occidental writer nor a Russian writer. I am an accidental writer.