Tatyana Tolstaya

I have enough energy to insist on saying what I think.

I don't think people are fools, and I think they deserve a good attitude and smart entertainment.

People know that I am a very good author. But they would rather read what I have to say about the next election.

The best time is always yesterday.

I don't want to deal with big, grand themes in my stories; art has nothing to do with themes. When you deal with themes, you are not creating; you are lecturing.

Politics disappears; it vanishes. What remains constant is human life. So I try to develop a perspective in my writing where politics is just one of the pieces of furniture in this furnished world. It is not the purpose. It is not the goal.

I am interested in the subject which is Russia.

Art has nothing to do with politics. It is the freest thing in the world.

If there is a pattern, it will come back - maybe in Russia more than anywhere else, because it has collapsed so many times. Maybe less so here in the States, because here the society is so young.