“My work always tried to unite the true with the beautiful but when I had to choose one or the other, I usually chose the beautiful.”
Tip: press → for another quote, C to copy, S to share.
I was interested by the idea that artists working in a totalitarian dictatorship or tsarist autocracy are secretly and slightly shamefully envied by artists who work in freedom. They have the gratification of intense interest: the authorities want to put them in jail, while there are younger readers for whom what they write is pure oxygen.
A healthy attitude is contagious but don't wait to catch it from others. Be a carrier.
I think age is a very high price to pay for maturity.
Back in the East you can't do much without the right papers, but with the right papers you can do anything The believe in papers. Papers are power.