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I didn't want to be either the cre`me de la cre`me or a martyr. I'd rather be a novelty, especially in a democracy that doesn't understand the language I write in.

Joseph Brodsky

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Joseph Brodsky
Age: 55 †
Born: 1940
Born: May 24
Died: 1996
Died: January 25
Author
Dramaturge
Essayist
Playwright
Poet
Translator
Writer
St. Petersburg
Iosif Aleksandrovich Brodsky
Didn
Especially
Writing
Democracy
Either
Rather
Language
Understand
Write
Martyr
Doesn
Novelty

More quotes by Joseph Brodsky

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The eye identifies itself not with the body it belongs to but with the object of its attention.
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The fact that we are living does not mean we are not sick.
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After all, it is hard to master both life and work equally well. So if you are bound to fake one of them, it had better be life.
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Every writing career starts as a personal quest for sainthood, for self-betterment. Sooner or later, and as a rule quite soon, a man discovers that his pen accomplishes a lot more than his soul.
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Tragedy, as you know, is always a fait accompli, whereas terror always has to do with anticipation, with man's recognition of hisown negative potential--with his sense of what he is capable of.
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The Constitution doesn't mention rain.
Joseph Brodsky
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In general, with things unpleasant, the rule is: The sooner you hit bottom, the faster you surface.
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How delightful to find a friend in everyone.
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Bad literature is a form of treason.
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I sit in the dark. And it would be hard to figure out which is worse the dark inside, or the darkness out.
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Man is what he reads.
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Poems, novels - these things belong to the nation, to the culture and the people. They've been stolen from the people and now the stolen things are being returned to their owners, but I don't think their owners should be grateful to receive them.
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When the eye fails to find beauty-alias solace-it commands the body to create it, or, failing that, adjusts itself to perceive virtue in ugliness.
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The formula for prison is a lack of space counterbalanced by a surplus of time. This is what really bothers you, that you can't win. Prison is lack of alternatives, and the telescopic predictability of the future is what drives you crazy.
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A language is a more ancient and inevitable thing than any state.
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Because every book of art, be it a poem or a cupola, is understandably a self-portrait of its author, we won't strain ourselves too hard trying to distinguish between the author's persona and the poem's lyrical hero. As a rule, such distinctions are quite meaningless, if only because a lyrical hero is invariably an author's self-projection.
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The government, the state, they're just objects of jokes rather than serious consideration. I can't possibly take them seriously.
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If they had wanted to punish me, they should have kept me in a communal apartment. Then I would have become a wreck.
Joseph Brodsky
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Poetry is what is gained in translation.
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When I'm not writing or reading, I'm thinking about both.
Joseph Brodsky