Joseph Brodsky

Any dispute in matters of taste usually results in a standoff.

— Joseph Brodsky

“Liberdade é quando você esquece o nome do tirano.”

— Joseph Brodsky

I don't have principles. I have nerves.

— Joseph Brodsky

How delightful to find a friend in everyone.

— Joseph Brodsky

Geography blended with time equals destiny.

— Joseph Brodsky

The imprisoning of a writer is the same as the burning of a book.

— Joseph Brodsky

The Constitution doesn't mention rain.

— Joseph Brodsky

Life has a great deal up its sleeve.

— Joseph Brodsky

Perhaps the best proof of the Almighty's existence is that we never know when we are to die.

— Joseph Brodsky

...in the business of writing what one accumulates is not expertise but uncertainties. Which is but another name for craft.

— Joseph Brodsky

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

— Joseph Brodsky

“There are far more a worst crimes than burning books… Not reading them.”

— Joseph Brodsky

A writer is seldom satisfied with the condition he finds himself in. We're all given to fretting a lot.

— Joseph Brodsky

For some odd reason, the expression 'death of a poet' always sounds somewhat more concrete than 'life of a poet.'

— Joseph Brodsky

To translate poetry, one has to possess some art, at the very least the art of stylistic re-embodiment.

— Joseph Brodsky

“The surest defense against Evil is extreme individualism, originality of thinking, whimsicality, even—if you will—eccentricity.”

— Joseph Brodsky

In the end, like the Almighty Himself, we make everything in our image, for want of a more reliable model; our artifacts…

— Joseph Brodsky

I simply loved all my life; loved is too strong a word, but I had a tremendous sentiment, partly conditioned, of course,…

— Joseph Brodsky

Literature is a far more ancient and viable thing than any social formation or state. And just as the state interferes in…

— Joseph Brodsky

If a poet has any obligation toward society, it is to write well. Being in the minority, he has no other choice.…

— Joseph Brodsky

Americans have been tremendously fortunate in poetry, regarding both the quantity and quality of poetry produced. Unfortunately, it remains in schools and…

— Joseph Brodsky

As failures go, attempting to recall the past is like trying to grasp the meaning of existence. Both make one feel like…

— Joseph Brodsky

I do not believe in political movements. I believe in personal movement, that movement of the soul when a man who looks…

— Joseph Brodsky

I simply think that water is the image of time, and every New Year's Eve, in somewhat pagan fashion, I try to…

— Joseph Brodsky

If there is anything good about exile, it is that it teaches one humility. It accelerates one’s drift into isolation, an absolute…

— Joseph Brodsky

“Try not to pay attention to those who will try to make life miserable for you. There will be a lot of…

— Joseph Brodsky

One of the worst things that can happen to an artist is to perceive himself as the owner of his art, and…

— Joseph Brodsky

“In winter you wake up in this city, especially on Sundays, to the chiming of its innumerable bells, as though behind your…

— Joseph Brodsky

On the whole, infinity is a fairly palpable aspect of this business of publishing, if only because it extends a dead author's…

— Joseph Brodsky

...boredom speaks the language of time, and it is to teach you the most valuable lesson in your life--...the lesson of your…

— Joseph Brodsky

“It's an abominable fallacy that suffering makes for greater art. Suffering blinds, deafens, ruins, and often kills. Osip Mandelstam was a great…

— Joseph Brodsky

“STANICA U PUSTINJI Tako malo Grka u Lenjingradu je sada, da smo porušili grčku crkvu kako bismo na praznom mestu sazidali koncertnu…

— Joseph Brodsky

Art is a spirit seeking flesh but finding words.

— Joseph Brodsky

“And geography blended with time equals destiny.”

— Joseph Brodsky

Creativity is an unending exercise in uncertainty.

— Joseph Brodsky

Every life has a file, if you will.

— Joseph Brodsky

Bad literature is a form of treason.

— Joseph Brodsky

Who included me among the ranks of the human race?

— Joseph Brodsky

I got caught up in the proletariat the way Marx describes it.

— Joseph Brodsky

All the literati keep at least one imaginary friend.

— Joseph Brodsky