“We shall fight against them, throw them in prisons and destroy them. ”

“He who does not regret the break-up of the Soviet Union has no heart; he who wants to revive it in its previous form has no head.”

“Whoever does not miss the Soviet Union has no heart. Whoever wants it back has no brain.”

“One has to be insincere and promise something which you cannot fulfill. So you either have to be a fool who does not understand what you are promising, or deliberately be lying.”

“That's for the best. Otherwise they might realize they're in prison. It can't be helped. You women are used to harems and prisons. A person can spend his whole life between four walls. If he doesn't think or feel that he's a prisoner, then he's not a prisoner. But then there are people for whom the whole planet is a prison, who see the infinite expanse of the universe, the millions of stars and galaxies that remain forever inaccessible to them. And that awareness makes them the greatest prisoners of time and space.”

“Some people-and I am one of them-hate happy ends. We feel cheated. Harm is the norm. Doom should not jam.”

“I liked, as I like still, to make words look self-conscious and foolish, to bind them by mock marriage of a pun, to turn them inside out, to come upon them unawares. What is this jest in majesty? This ass in passion? How do god and devil combine to form a live dog?”