For a country to have a great writer is like having a second government. That is why no regime has ever loved great writers, only minor ones. – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
The sole substitute for an experience which we have not ourselves lived through is art and literature. – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Our government declared that it is conducting some kind of great reforms. In reality, no real reforms were begun and no one at any point has declared a coherent programme. – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Woe to that nation whose literature is cut short by the intrusion of force. This is not merely interference with freedom of the press but the sealing up of a nations heart, the excision of its memory. – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn