“In the Soviet Union, everything is against God, against religion, against Christianity. Everything is for Communism. But Communism doesn’t work. So this contradiction makes you think, makes you question things.”

- Natalie Polovchak
“The New American,” November 21, 1988

“In the middle of thinking about the fame that my works were bringing me I would say to myself, ‘Very well, you will be more famous than Gogol, Pushkin, Shakespeare, Moliere, more famous than all the other authors in the world – so what?’ And I would find absolutely no reply.”

- Leo Tolstoy
“Confessions,” November 1879