"I have Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin to thank that a Russian writer can not only write anything he wants, but also publish it."

-- Vladimir Sorokin

#Writing Quotes #Want Quotes #Gorbachev Quotes

“Sex doesn't sell as well as we thought. If we would not sell the Van Gogh and Co., it would be a very serious problem.”
“What discord we should bring into the universe if our prayers were all answered. Then we should govern the world and not God. And do you think we should govern it better? It gives me only pain when I hear the long, wearisome petitions of people asking for they know not what. . . . Thanks-giving with a full heart-and the rest silence and submission to the divine will!”
“I made efforts to swallow tears and to protect the species of the Japanese nation.”
“Yes. Otherwise I could have done a lot of Hollywood movies. After Crouching Tiger I got a lot of offers, but I turned them down because they were all victim roles - poor girls sold to America to be a wife or whatever. I know I have the ability to go deeper, to take on more original roles than that.”
“There are two types of racers- cheaters and losers.”
“Humans make the mistake of believing that it is their right to survive. Species die out on this planet all the time without anyone noticing. The planet will still be there, and we must lose this attitude of divine right, that something will save us...”
“Every generationâ€™s breakthroughs are proven false by the next generationâ€™s Technology”
“A man's sentiments are generally just and right, while it is second selfish thought which makes him trim and adopt some other view. The best reforms are worked out when sentiment operates, as it does in women, with the indignation of righteousness.”

Source : "Social insight rings true 125 years on" by Lee Altenberg, "Nature", vol. 490, p. 487, October 25, 2012.

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