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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.

Gary Shteyngart

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Gary Shteyngart
Age: 52
Born: 1972
Born: July 5
Journalist
Novelist
Writer
St. Petersburg
First
Entirely
Years
Absolutely
Mocking
Way
Large
Clothed
Year
Shiny
Two
Leather
Become
Mainstream
Firsts
Correct
Self
Fake

More quotes by Gary Shteyngart

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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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American fiction is good. It would be nice if somebody read it.
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That's what I always liked about science fiction - you can make the world end. Humour is my multiple warhead delivery system.
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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.
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That's what tyrants do, I guess. They make you covet their attention they make you confuse attention for mercy.
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The fading light is us, and we are, for a moment so brief (...) beautiful.
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I love librarians more than any other people in the world. When I was an immigrant kid, they’ve made me feel like a human being and they gave me books that taught me English.
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One should learn from a book. Books have a lot to teach us. They have a lot of empathy to impart to us, but they should also be fun. This stuff is fun! You shouldn't pick up a book and say, Oh my god, I'm gonna better myself by reading this. You may better yourself by reading this, but who cares? Just have fun.
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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.
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I have some memories of certain things that happened in high school when I was stoned out of my mind, but I talked with other people about them, and I trusted the aggregated memories.
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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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You could drown a kitten in her blue eyes.
Gary Shteyngart
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Italy has sun and tomatoes, and Russia just has real problems.
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Getting out of Russia was the best thing my parents did. I mean, that country will never amount to anything.
Gary Shteyngart
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If you read only one memoir by a disaffected, urban, 20-something Jewish girl this year, make it this one. Shukert rocks the lulav.
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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.
Gary Shteyngart
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Asthmatic immigrant learns to breathe by writing.
Gary Shteyngart
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People always write on my Facebook that they've seen somebody they thought was me on the subway, and I was cursing badly.
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Before my first novel, I was dating a woman who later went to prison for bashing a guy with a hammer.
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If I still lived in Russia, I'd be dead... or a really effective oligarch.
Gary Shteyngart