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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.

Gary Shteyngart

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Gary Shteyngart
Age: 52
Born: 1972
Born: July 5
Journalist
Novelist
Writer
St. Petersburg
Tried
Kiev
College
Graduated
Maybe
Chicken
Mother
Chickens
Wanted
Hadn
Would
Lawyer
Sell
Sells

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She took my hand and pulled me after her, her shoulders giving off a sweet peppermint concoction that the bodies of young women sometimes produce to make my life more difficult.
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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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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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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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Vodka is a wonderful drink. You can drink so much of it without being as hung over as you would if you were drinking one of the brown liquors - the whiskeys and such. It's a great drink to go with appetizers.
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In America, the distance between wanting something and having it delivered to your living room is not terribly great.
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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.
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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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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 a great memory. And actually, I remember Russia in some ways better than I remember Queens.
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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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You are not what you want. You are what wants you back.
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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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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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If I still lived in Russia, I'd be dead... or a really effective oligarch.
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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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Let's see if I can write about something other than my heart.
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