Joseph Brodsky

“Neither as a writer nor, moreover, as a leader of a nation should you use terminology that obscures the reality of human evil.”

“Whether by theft or by artistry or by conquest, when it comes to time, Venetians are the world's greatest experts. They bested time like no one else.”

“My poems getting published in Russia doesn't make me feel in any fashion, to tell you the truth. I'm not trying to be coy, but it doesn't tickle my ego.”

“Bad literature is a form of treason.”

“What I like about cities is that everything is king size, the beauty and the ugliness.”

“Venice is eternity itself.”

“Every individual ought to know at least one poet from cover to cover: if not as a guide through the world, then as a yardstick for the language.”