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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.

Gary Shteyngart

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Gary Shteyngart
Age: 52
Born: 1972
Born: July 5
Journalist
Novelist
Writer
St. Petersburg
Thinking
Clearly
Writers
Growing
Death
Really
Good
Brink
Always
Mortality
Think
Lets

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The radio station was playing Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake, a sure sign that things were much worse than they appeared.
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Remember this... develop a sense of nostalgia for something, or you'll never figure out what's important.
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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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By reading this message you are denying its existence and implying consent.
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I love Paul Giamatti - God, that man is like a walking Chekhov. His connection to humanity is unbelievable, and those feelings of low self-esteem - the way that all comes together on the screen? Delicious.
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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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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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The fading light is us, and we are, for a moment so brief (...) beautiful.
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The best thing about the iPhone is this that tells me where I am all the time. Theres never a need to feel lost anymore.
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freedom is anathema to dreams nurtured in captivity.
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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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Life for young American college graduates is a festive affair. Free of having to support their families, they mostly have gay parties on rooftops where they reflect at length upon their quirky electronic childhoods and sometimes kiss each other on the lips and neck.
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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 just want fiction to remain a vital force for entertainment and not just for contemplation. Both things can exist.
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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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Russia tried to introduce beer as kind of the new vodka - and it's working with younger people in major cities - but you can have ten shots of vodka and be perfectly okay. If I had ten beers, I would be liquidated.
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Forget the fountain of youth, pal of mine. You can live to be a thousand, and it won't matter. Mediocrities like you deserve immortality.
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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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Michigan, with its delicious American name. How lucky one must be to live there.
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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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