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I have a great memory. And actually, I remember Russia in some ways better than I remember Queens.

Gary Shteyngart

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Gary Shteyngart
Age: 52
Born: 1972
Born: July 5
Journalist
Novelist
Writer
St. Petersburg
Better
Great
Queens
Way
Russia
Memory
Memories
Ways
Actually
Remember

More quotes by Gary Shteyngart

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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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I always think that good writers should be growing up on the brink of death - it really lets them see mortality very clearly.
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One of the goals of analysis is you become your own analyst. You continue the process even if you're not in therapy, whether you continue the process by walking down the street thinking about things or whether you continue the process, as I do, by writing about them.
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American fiction is good. It would be nice if somebody read it.
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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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Reading is entering into the consciousness of another human being.
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The only way to write about right now is to write about the future.
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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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My parents were kind enough to spend hours talking to me.
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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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Asthmatic immigrant learns to breathe by writing.
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If my mother hadn't tried to sell me chicken Kiev cutlets for $1.40 after I graduated from college, maybe I would've been the lawyer she wanted me to be.
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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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Getting out of Russia was the best thing my parents did. I mean, that country will never amount to anything.
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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 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
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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.
Gary Shteyngart
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We are now part of this giant machine where every second we have to take out a device and contribute our thoughts and opinions.
Gary Shteyngart
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I just want fiction to remain a vital force for entertainment and not just for contemplation. Both things can exist.
Gary Shteyngart
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I don't have many possessions, apart from my books.
Gary Shteyngart