We're people of the Orient. We know everything. And what we don't know, we can sense. Gary Shteyngart More Quotes by Gary Shteyngart More Quotes From Gary Shteyngart A writer or any suffering artist-to-be is just an instrument too finely set to the human condition [...] Gary Shteyngart instrumentsartistsuffering In the first few pages, Kundera discusses several abstract historical figures: Robespierre, Nietzsche, Hitler. For Eunice's sake, I wanted him to get to the plot, to introduce actual "living" characters - I recalled this was a love story - and to leave the world of ideas behind. Here we were, two people lying in bed, Eunice's worried head propped on my collarbone, and I wanted us to feel something in common. I wanted this complex language, this surge of intellect, to be processed into love. Isn't that how they used to do it a century ago, people reading poetry to one another? Gary Shteyngart readinglovelying My hair would continue to gray, and then one day, it would fall out entirely, and then, on a day meaninglessly close to the present one, meaninglessly like the present one, I would disappear from the earth. And all these emotions, all these yearnings, all these data, if that helps to clinch the enormity of what I'm talking about, would be gone. And that's what immortality means. It means selfishness. My generations belief that each one of us matters more than you or anyone else would think. Gary Shteyngart meanfallthinking 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. Gary Shteyngart memoriespeopleschool The love I felt for her on that train ride had a capital and provinces, parishes and a Vatican, an orange planet and many sullen moons -- it was systemic and it was complete. Gary Shteyngart sullenorangemoon Reading is difficult. People just aren't meant to read anymore. We're in a post-literate age. You know, a visual age. How many years after the fall of Rome did it take for a Dante to appear? Many, many years. Gary Shteyngart romereadingfall Summer is a Latvian chicken. We make foolish choices. We think we’re young again. We run with outstretched arms toward an object of love and it pecks us and pecks us until we’re standing there snot-nosed and teary in the middle of Astor Place and the sun sets fire to our Penguin shirts and all that is left to do is go to our air-conditioned homes and ponder the cruelty of our finest season. Gary Shteyngart summerhomerunning In contravention of my belief that any life ending in death is essentially pointless, I needed my friends to open up that plastic bag and take one last look at me. Someone had to remember me, if only for a few more minutes in the vast silent waiting room of time. Gary Shteyngart bagswaiting-roomslasts Then I celebrated my Wall of Books. I counted the volumes on my twenty-foot-long modernist bookshelf to make sure none had been misplaced or used as kindling by my subtenant. “You’re my sacred ones,” I told the books. “No one but me still cares about you. But I’m going to keep you with me forever. And one day I’ll make you important again.” I thought about that terrible calumny of the new generation: that books smell. Gary Shteyngart smellwallbook I feel safe with him because he is so not my ideal and I feel like I can be myself because I'm not in love with him. Gary Shteyngart idealssafefeels freedom is anathema to dreams nurtured in captivity. Gary Shteyngart anathemacaptivitydream Let's see if I can write about something other than my heart. Gary Shteyngart ifsheartwriting The memoirs I love are all very intense. If you're going to do a memoir and protect yourself, what the hell's the point? Just do fiction. Gary Shteyngart intensehellfiction 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 selftwoyears I'm the fortieth ugliest man in this bar. But so what! So what!... Isn't this how people used to fall in love? Gary Shteyngart falling-in-lovemenpeople Satire always benefits when evil and stupidity collide. Gary Shteyngart benefitsstupidityevil 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. Gary Shteyngart whiskeydrinkingwonderful 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. Gary Shteyngart kidsbookpeople If you're not fascinated by Korea yet, you damn well should be. The most innovative country on earth deserves a hilarious and poignant account on the order of Euny Hong's The Birth of Korean Cool. Her phat beats got Gangnam Style and then some. Gary Shteyngart koreaordercountry 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 despaircitiesanswers
