It is the army that finally makes a citizen of you; without it you still have a chance, however slim, to remain a human being. - Joseph Brodsky

For darkness restores what light cannot repair. There we are married, blest, we make once more the two-backed beast and children are the fair excuse of what we're naked for.

You know, when you go outside on the streets after having spent the day writing, you feel like a foreign body, even in your own country. This sensation perhaps feels more natural when you are really outside your country.

It is better to be a total failure in democracy than a martyr or the crème de la crème in tyranny.