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That's what tyrants do, I guess. They make you covet their attention they make you confuse attention for mercy.

Gary Shteyngart

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Gary Shteyngart
Age: 52
Born: 1972
Born: July 5
Journalist
Novelist
Writer
St. Petersburg
Confuse
Tyrants
Mercy
Guess
Attention
Make
Covet

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I have a great memory. And actually, I remember Russia in some ways better than I remember Queens.
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You want to read a book? That requires introspection. It requires time away from people and time away from the constant need to communicate and to connect.
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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 you have to write for the Academy. Be true to your personality. Don't temper your personality down with words. Don't build defensive fortresses around yourself with words - words are your friends.
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I have my own dying empire to contend with, and I do not wish for any other.
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If I still lived in Russia, I'd be dead... or a really effective oligarch.
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Alcohol causes a lot of problems, and then to solve these problems, you drink more.
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It is a capital insult in this country not to make love to a naked woman, even if she is related to you.
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You are not what you want. You are what wants you back.
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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.
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freedom is anathema to dreams nurtured in captivity.
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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.
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Italy has sun and tomatoes, and Russia just has real problems.
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Asthmatic immigrant learns to breathe by writing.
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She was clothed entirely in two large swatches of leather, the leather fake and shiny in a self-mocking way, absolutely correct for 1993, the first year when mocking the mainstream had become the mainstream.
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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.
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All of my books have an element of a man who is in love with somebody and needs them desperately, not just for procreation but for being able to fully unbosom himself. He only feels comfortable discussing things with women. Which is funny, because 80 percent of readers are women!
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I write almost entirely in bed or on a couch with my feet up on the coffee table. I feel most creative when Im looking out the window, and my bed and couch have nice views of the New York skyline.
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