Writer Sergei Dovlatov was born on September 3, 1941. He would have turned 80 today. Behind the simplicity of his works are honesty, modesty, humor and an incredible sense of language. For the anniversary of the classic, we offer a selection of funny and wise quotes from his books, letters and interviews.
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“Union without obligation. What is the guarantee of its longevity … But where is love? Where is the jealousy and insomnia? Where is the flood of feelings? Where are the unsent letters with smudged ink? Where is the swoon at the sight of a tiny foot? Where are cupids, cupids and other extras of this exciting show? Where, finally, is a bouquet of flowers for thirty rubles?!..” (“Reserve”, 1983).
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When I write that you are a wonderful girl, then I already know what I am writing about. And over time, learn to keep it simpler, more natural, you will put less exclamation and question marks in your letters and turn into a wonderful woman. (From letters to Tamara Urzhumova, 1963)
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If you see that a person is laughing at himself, you can be absolutely sure that he is not a fool, since the ability to make fun of himself is a clear and indisputable sign of intelligence. Charlatans never do this. (From letters to Tamara Urzhumova, 1963)
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And I am sending you a picturesque portrait, since I can’t be photographed, the emulsion on the film bursts from my muzzle, it can’t stand it. (From letters to Tamara Urzhumova, 1963)
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I am now completely alone, like a hippopotamus in the Leningrad Zoo. Her name is Beauty, and she is very pretty, but, you can imagine, she is always alone. Because she is the only hippopotamus in Leningrad, and she does not agree to marry an ostrich or a goat. (From letters to Tamara Urzhumova, 1963)
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When I was in the north, I saw how my acquaintances, normally stupid, normally unsympathetic people, did heroic deeds. And then I realized that in some circumstances the brake of selfishness turns off in a person, and then his strengths and possibilities are endless. (…) In all likelihood, the task of art is to turn off the brake of selfishness in a person. (From army letters to his father, 1962–1964)
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The stimuli of literary creativity are a very internal matter, almost unformulated, but if you still try to answer this question, then literary activity is most likely an attempt to overcome your own complexes, to get rid of or weaken the tragedy of existence. (“A writer in exile”, an interview with the Slovo magazine, published in 1991)
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It disgusts me that if a Russian cinematographer calls, he starts the conversation like this: “I have a creative proposal for you, I already turned to Voinovich and Aksenov, but they refused …” (From letters to Georgy and Natalya Vladimov, 1984)
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I will never be able to understand why Norman Mailer, Vonnegut (a man of boundless charm) or the late Cheever are a thousand times more benevolent, more accessible and simpler than the musty and mysterious Viti Perelman*. (From letters to Georgy and Natalya Vladimov, 1984)
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I do not agree that, for example, anyone can be an engineer, but Leo Tolstoy is certainly a writer. You can write not too much and not too brilliant, but about important things and really. (From army letters to his father, 1962–1964)
* Victor Perelman is a journalist, editor, publisher of the Russian émigré magazine «Time and Us», in which S. Dovlatov published several stories.