Gary Shteyngart quotes - page 2

You can't have a Russian household without vodka. It's just something to wash everything down with. I can't remember a time when I didn't drink vodka, either in Russia or here. I don't think there's ever a wrong time to start drinking it. My ancestors drank it, and if I ever have any children, they'll be drinking it. (Gary Shteyngart)
My first book really did change my life. It allowed me to fully express myself. There was a sense that I was worth something as an artist. View quote
Gary Shteyngart
My parents were kind enough to spend hours talking to me. View quote
Gary Shteyngart
Usually, with a novel, you start with no idea what to do because your job is to create convincing characters and then they just run around getting crazy. The problem with writing a memoir, obviously, is you can't do that because you sort of know what's going to happen. Because you're the character. View quote
Gary Shteyngart
Before my first novel, I was dating a woman who later went to prison for bashing a guy with a hammer. View quote
Gary Shteyngart
That's what tyrants do, I guess. They make you covet their attention; they make you confuse attention for mercy. View quote
Gary Shteyngart
I was really not a good student, and I felt that shame every day. That's one of the reasons I started smoking pot and drinking daily. View quote
Gary Shteyngart
Italy has sun and tomatoes, and Russia just has real problems. View quote
Gary Shteyngart
Satire always benefits when evil and stupidity collide. View quote
Gary Shteyngart
American fiction is good. It would be nice if somebody read it. View quote
Gary Shteyngart
Vodka has a huge history in Russia, in that it's almost like a currency. It's the one thing that keeps the country in the dark ages and having a rollicking good time. (Gary Shteyngart)
The only way to write about right now is to write about the future. View quote
Gary Shteyngart
My parents were constantly afraid they would lose their jobs. The idea that we were always a paycheck away from disaster was drilled into me. View quote
Gary Shteyngart
I felt the weakness of these books, their immateriality, how they had failed to change the world, and I didn't want to sully myself with their weakness anymore. View quote
Gary Shteyngart
In contravention of my belief that any life ending in death is essentially pointless, I needed my friends to open up that plastic bag and take one last look at me. Someone had to remember me, if only for a few more minutes in the vast silent waiting room of time. View quote
Gary Shteyngart
I'm the fortieth ugliest man in this bar. But so what! So what!... Isn't this how people used to fall in love? View quote
Gary Shteyngart
Reading is difficult. People just aren't meant to read anymore. We're in a post-literate age. You know, a visual age. How many years after the fall of Rome did it take for a Dante to appear? Many, many years. View quote
Gary Shteyngart
I have a great memory. And actually, I remember Russia in some ways better than I remember Queens. View quote
Gary Shteyngart
Michigan, with its delicious American name. How lucky one must be to live there. View quote
Gary Shteyngart
In America, the distance between wanting something and having it delivered to your living room is not terribly great. View quote
Gary Shteyngart
freedom is anathema to dreams nurtured in captivity. (Gary Shteyngart)
I have my own dying empire to contend with, and I do not wish for any other. View quote
Gary Shteyngart
Every returning New Yorker asks the question: Is this still my city? I have a ready answer, cloaked in obstinate despair: It is. And if it's not, I will love it all the more. I will love it to the point where it becomes mine again. View quote
Gary Shteyngart
We're people of the Orient. We know everything. And what we don't know, we can sense. View quote
Gary Shteyngart
Asthmatic immigrant learns to breathe by writing. View quote
Gary Shteyngart