Dostoevski's Quotes

#1. Dostoevski's The Double is his best work though an obvious and shameless imitation of Gogol's Nose.

Vladimir Nabokov

#2. The transition state of manners and language cannot be too often insisted upon: for this affected the process at both ends, giving the artist in fictitious life an uncertain model to copy and unstable materials to work in.

George Saintsbury

#3. When I write, I don't translate for white readers ... Dostoevski wrote for a Russian audience, but we're able to read him. If I'm specific, and I don't overexplain, then anyone can overhear me.

Toni Morrison

#4. It's rare to get a really truly wonderfully written, acted and produced sci-fi show, period.

Richard Hatch

#5. A square meter of earth, Dostoevski said; if all you had was a square meter of earth to stand on, and nothing around you but impenetrable fog, living would be preferable to dying.

Joe Haldeman

#6. He who only wishes and hopes does not interfere actively with the course of events and with the shaping of his own destiny.

Ludwig Von Mises

#7. One day we were born, one day we shall die, the same day, the same second.

Samuel Beckett

#8. The flies buzzed in answer above the dirty water standing in the washbasin, in which floated a solitary black hair. It, too, was like life
and as meaningless.

Stella Gibbons

#9. He was almost naked too, but I hadn't quite gotten to his boxers yet. (They were silk because, honestly what else would Adrian wear?)

Richelle Mead

#10. The Holy Ghost will warn us of danger, and it will inspire us to help others in need.

Joseph B. Wirthlin

#11. Typically you see the home office think up some great program but doesn't think through implementation at the store level.

Thomas G. Stemberg

#12. It's all like an ocean! cried Dostoevski. I say it's all like cellophane.

Kurt Vonnegut

#13. Dostoevski was on to something. You are the path you choose. You are what your vocation is.

Giovanni Ribisi

#14. What are you doing right now that requires faith?

Francis Chan

#15. When you're sending emails, you live and die by your subject line. Making it personal or funny can increase your open rate 10 times or more. At the very least, try to pitch some value rather than pointless bragging. 'Work Faster!' is better than 'Version 10.4 now available!'

John Wall

#16. Sometimes it is no great shame to give in, even to despair, provided that it is just for a little while. Sometimes a little surrender is good for the soul.

Alexia Casale

#17. Why beer is better than wine: human feet are conspicuously absent from beer making.

Steve Mirsky

#18. Dostoevski does not tell you what to think about his legend, but he requires that you think about it. The novelist was a deeply religious man and he always thought many readers missed that point about him.

Suzanne Fields

#19. As Dostoevski said: 'Love in action is a harsh and dreadful thing compared with love in dreams.

Dorothy Day

#20. Dostoevski informs everybody; or he ought to.

David Foster Wallace

#21. If, at the close of business each evening, I myself can understand what I've written, I feel the day hasn't been totally wasted.

S.J Perelman

#22. The reason that I think it is a waste of time to engage in moral value judgements about people's violence, is because it doesn't advance by one iota our understanding of either the causes or the prevention of the violent behaviour.

James Gilligan

#23. There are people who read Tolstoy or Dostoevski who do not insist that their endings be happy or pleasant or, at least, not be depressing. But if you're writing mysteries - oh, no, you can't have an ending like that. It must be tidy.

Martha Grimes