“The world is harsh and inconsiderate, and you can rely only on your family.” — Gary Shteyngart Copy Share Image
By reading this message you are denying its existence and implying consent. — Gary Shteyngart Copy Share Image
“As every so-called creative spirit soon learns, the rest of the world doesn't particularly give a damn.” — Gary Shteyngart Copy Share Image
In America, the distance between wanting something and having it delivered to your living room is not terribly great. — Gary Shteyngart Copy Share Image
“Every moment I have ever experienced as a child is as important as every moment I am experiencing now, or will experience… — Gary Shteyngart Copy Share Image
“After all, this is America, and you can swap out the parts of yourself that don't work. You can rebuild yourself piece… — Gary Shteyngart Copy Share Image
“The simple trill of her laugh has not declined over the years; if anything it's been buffeted by her endless sorrows and… — Gary Shteyngart Copy Share Image
My first book really did change my life. It allowed me to fully express myself. There was a sense that I was… — Gary Shteyngart Copy Share Image
She took my hand and pulled me after her, her shoulders giving off a sweet peppermint concoction that the bodies of young… — Gary Shteyngart Copy Share Image
Life for young American college graduates is a festive affair. Free of having to support their families, they mostly have gay parties… — Gary Shteyngart Copy Share Image
“There's something outrageously simple about extending yourself toward a goal the way a plant seeks the sun's rays or a gopher the… — Gary Shteyngart Copy Share Image
“On that night I was left with only the truth that nothing of our personality survives after death, that in the end… — Gary Shteyngart Copy Share Image
“IT IS FORBIDDEN TO ACKNOWLEDGE THE EXISTENCE OF THIS VEHICLE ("THE OBJECT") UNTIL YOU ARE .5 MILES FROM THE SECURITY PERIMETER OF… — Gary Shteyngart Copy Share Image
“For the first time in my life, I felt sorry for Jesus. Sorry that the miracles ascribed to him hadn’t actually made… — Gary Shteyngart Copy Share Image
In contravention of my belief that any life ending in death is essentially pointless, I needed my friends to open up that… — Gary Shteyngart Copy Share Image
I wish I were stronger and more secure in myself so that I could really spend my life with a guy like… — Gary Shteyngart Copy Share Image
“This would be the worst birthday of his life. Vladimir's best friend Baobab was down in Florida covering his rent, doing unspeakable… — Gary Shteyngart Copy Share Image
“These are all good things, I said. But no one knows where your country is or who you are. You don't have a familiar… — Gary Shteyngart Copy Share
Don't be pretentious is my first advice to young writers. This is the big problem - just because you're getting an MFA doesn't mean… — Gary Shteyngart Copy Share
I read real books. On paper. You know, those printed books? I feel like this is the last thing I do to support my… — Gary Shteyngart Copy Share
Russia tried to introduce beer as kind of the new vodka - and it's working with younger people in major cities - but you… — Gary Shteyngart Copy Share
“There's something outrageously simple about extending yourself toward a goal the way a plant seeks the sun's rays or a gopher the crunch of… — Gary Shteyngart Copy Share
Silence has been destroyed, but also the idea that it's important to learn how another person thinks, to enter the mind of another person.… — Gary Shteyngart Copy Share
“This red-fading-into-brown defines Queens for me; it is quiet and melancholy and postsuccessful, vaguely British in its disposition.” — Gary Shteyngart Copy Share
If I still lived in Russia, I'd be dead... or a really effective oligarch. — Gary Shteyngart Copy Share
“The fact that my sexual awakening peripherally involves Steve Guttenberg I have gradually accepted.” — Gary Shteyngart Copy Share
“The simple trill of her laugh has not declined over the years; if anything it's been buffeted by her endless sorrows and disappointments.” — Gary Shteyngart Copy Share
“We know summer is the height of of being alive. We don't believe in God or the prospect of an afterlife mostly, so we… — Gary Shteyngart Copy Share
“The novel was set in an unspecified near future, because setting a novel in the present in a time of unprecedented technological and social… — Gary Shteyngart Copy Share
One should learn from a book. Books have a lot to teach us. They have a lot of empathy to impart to us, but… — Gary Shteyngart Copy Share
I always think that good writers should be growing up on the brink of death - it really lets them see mortality very clearly. — Gary Shteyngart Copy Share
