“Each of us, perhaps, holds the idea of such a place, the one we long to see more than anywhere else - and for this reason we should avoid ever going there. It thus remains a zone of desire and enigma, a space on the map onto which we project our capacity for enchantment.” DesireIdealismEnchantment Book:Autobibliography Source: Autobibliography
“It is difficult, when we look back on certain periods of our lives, not to succumb to romanticism and nostalgia. Even while I lived in London, though, I romanticised the city and the life I lived there; or rather, I knew it was a beautiful, romantic time of life, and that, like youth itself, the circumstances that had come so magically together would never be repeated, and that one day I would regret those years. Although I sometimes tantalise myself with the idea of moving to London again, I don't need Heraclitus to remind me that you can't step into the same city twice. The London where I lived no longer exists, any more than a dream exists upon awakening - a dream in which you were happy, in which life lived up to its promise.” CitiesYouthTwentiesNostalgiaRomanticismDoing A Geographical Book:Autobibliography Source: Autobibliography
“I could live this way indefinitely and I'd be all right ... I've done enough living and can now spend my time holding up the memories for contemplation, determining what it all meant. Images flood in: cities I've passed through; rooms where I've slept; friends who put me up or put up with me. In a couple of years I'll turn forty. Schopenhauer wrote that the first forty years are the text, the rest is the commentary. I see that, and yet I feel that I'm somehow at the start of a life, on the cusp, facing a future that's strange and turbulent but not entirely hopeless.” WritingContemplationFortyMidlifeLockdownSchopehnauer Book:Autobibliography Source: Autobibliography
“Despite Russia’s luminous literary past, the modern Russian hates and abhors books. There is only one thing that the modern Russian hates and abhors more than he hates and abhors books, and that is the people who read them. Russia’s luminous literary past, as far as the modern Russian is concerned, belongs in the past.” Russian LiteratureRussian HistoryRussians Book:This is the Ritual Source: This is the Ritual