Books Quote by Ayn Rand

The Russian yearning for the meaning of life is the major theme of our literature, and this is the real point of our intelligentsia's…

— Nikolai Berdyaev

How are we to write The Russian novel in America As long as life goes so unterribly?

— Robert Frost

“The most basic, most rudimentary spiritual need of the Russian people is the need for suffering, ever-present and unquenchable, everywhere and in everything.”

— Fyodor Dostoyevsky

That is almost the whole of Russian literature: the phenomenal coruscations of the souls of quite commonplace people.

— D. H. Lawrence

The clash between the aspirations of the people for a better life and the insistence of their rulers on building a powerful state, regardless…

— Harrison Salisbury

What about life, Ninotchka? Do Russians never think about life, of the moment in which we are living? It's the only moment we ever…

— Melvyn Douglas

“About immigrants from Russia: Soviet consciousness overlapped with the new American spirits has formed a specific and divisive culture. This culture is full of…

— Leo Pevsner

Much that we read of Russia is imagination and desire only.

— Agnes Smedley

“Nobody knew literature and history better than these people, nobody could write better Russian than they, nobody despised our times more profoundly. For these…

— Joseph Brodsky

“Although we had had no precise exponents of realism, yet after Pushkin it was impossible for a Russian writer to depart too far from…

— Lev Shestov

“The difference between the Russian character and the Western is that we Russians have learned to live our days in the full knowledge that…

— Edward Docx

“What is life? - A novel. Who is the author? - Anonymous. We read haltingly, laugh, weep... and sleep. Что наша жизнь? - роман. Кто автор? - аноним. Читаем по складам, смеемся, плачем... спим.”

— Nikolai Karamzin