Dovlatov Quotes & Sayings

You can divide the world into the two kinds of people: those who ask, and those who answer. Those who pose questions, and those who frown in irritation in response. — Sergei Dovlatov

Most people consider problems whose solutions don't suit them to be insoluble.
And they constantly ask questions to which they don't need truthful answers. — Sergei Dovlatov

I looked at the empty suitcase. On the bottom was Karl Marx. On the lid was Brodsky. And between them, my lost, precious, only life. — Sergei Dovlatov

I decided to "find myself" in monumental sculpture. Alas, monumental sculpture is a very conservative genre. The cause is the monumentality itself. You can secretly write novels and symphonies. You can secretly experiment on canvas. But just try to hide a twelve-foot-high sculpture! — Sergei Dovlatov

We're most likely to lose our rights when we allow ourselves to be persuaded to deprive others of theirs. — L. Neil Smith

Our life is but a grain of sand in the indifferent ocean of infinity. — Sergei Dovlatov

Here's a little song I wrote
You might want to sing it note for note
Don't worry, be happy
In every life we have some trouble
But when you worry you make it double
Don't worry, be happy
Don't worry, be happy now — Bobby McFerrin

The university campus was in the old part of town. The combination of water and stone creates a special, majestic atmosphere there. It's hard to be a sluggard under those circumstances, but I managed. — Sergei Dovlatov

What can I do? I have no talents. I refuse to cripple myself for ninety roubles ... Well, all right, so I'll eat two thousand hamburgers in my lifetime. Wear out twenty-five dark-grey suits. Leaf through seven hundred issues of the local newspaper. And die without scratching the earth's surface. Is that it? ... I'd rather live only a minute, but live it right! (Fred Kolesnikov) — Sergei Dovlatov

Let's assume there really is no such thing as happiness, no such thing as peace, and no freedom either. But there are kind of attacks of senseless ecstasy. Can this be me? — Sergei Dovlatov

I had three long conversations with Marusya over a cup of coffee. She told me her whole rather silly story. To some degree we became friends. I like people like that
doomed, dying, helpless, and brazen. I always say, if you're in trouble, you're not sinning. — Sergei Dovlatov

At the end of the day, it's up to me to get the job done but it's always nice to have someone to help you get through the tough week. — David Ragan

Looking around, do you see ruins? That was to be expected. He who lives in the world of words does not get along with things. — Sergei Dovlatov

We didn't raise our daughter, we merely loved her. — Sergei Dovlatov

The role of a disciple begins with recognition of personal ignorance. Therefore, true disciples listen to learn - not to argue. — Kevin Rhodes

If people are rude in Moscow, at least it's in Russian. — Sergei Dovlatov

We are not better than native born Americans, and of course not smarter. We've just been to the last stop of this bus. — Sergei Dovlatov

If Hemingway is to believed, poverty is an invaluable school for a writer. Poverty makes a man clear-sighted. And so on. It's interesting that Hemingway realized this only when he became rich. — Sergei Dovlatov

There's a reason every book, even one that isn't very serious, is shaped like a suitcase — Sergei Dovlatov

Don't think love has sizes. It either is or isn't — Sergei Dovlatov

The world was horrible. But life continued. What is more, life's usual proportions stayed the same. The ratio of good and evil, grief and happiness, remained unchanged. — Sergei Dovlatov

The world in which I found myself was horrifying. In that world, people fought with sharpened rasp files, ate dogs, covered their faces with tattoos and sodomized goats. In that world, people killed for a package of tea. — Sergei Dovlatov

The memories of walks...are hitched on to particular times and places; they spontaneously form a kind of calendar or connecting thread upon which other memories may be strung...The author is but the accidental appendage of the tramp. — Leslie Stephens

No point in arguing. But of course I argued. — Sergei Dovlatov

It is gracious to overlook an offence. — Lailah Gifty Akita

National identity is a motion. It's something you're inside, you don't get what's happening, you can't see it from above. And that's where you have to write. You can't see what's happening now or what's going to happen, so you just dive into it and write. — Karl Ove Knausgard

A Russian drunk is a fascinating creature. Even when he has money, he still prefers poison at a rouble forty. And he won't take the change. — Sergei Dovlatov

We are all ready to be savage in some cause. The difference between a good man and a bad one is the choice of the cause. — William James

Stop thinking. I've stopped some 15 years ago. Otherwise, if you will be thinking you won't want to live. Everyone who thinks is unhappy. — Sergei Dovlatov

Sales were lukewarm. Back home there was no freedom, but there were readers. Here there was freedom enough, but readers were missing. — Sergei Dovlatov

The day was cold but sunny. The city was decorated with holiday flags. — Sergei Dovlatov

As a schoolboy I liked to draw the leaders of the world proletariat - especially Marx. Just start smearing an ordinary splotch of ink around and you've already got a resemblance ... — Sergei Dovlatov