"A story is a letter that the author writes to himself, to tell himself things that he would be unable to discover otherwise."

You have to be willing to make mistakes regularly; there is nothing wrong with it. Michael taught me about making your best judgment, being wrong, making your next best judgment, being wrong, making your third best judgment, and then doubling your money.

The Soviet Union was a civilization of fear, where people lived in constant dread of the knock on the door at night.