Mikhail Iossel > Quotes

“Dumb, dumb dog!” I said. He wagged his tail.”
― Mikhail Iossel, Every Hunter Wants to Know

“We never seriously questioned life, because it was not likely to provide us with any answers.”
― Mikhail Iossel, Every Hunter Wants to Know

“those who lose their minds usually are the last to notice.”
― Mikhail Iossel, Every Hunter Wants to Know

“You know only all those fancy words that do you no good. You should really learn some serious words.”
― Mikhail Iossel, Every Hunter Wants to Know

“They were pawns, pitifully despicable and disposable, and yet they were strong and fearsome.”
― Mikhail Iossel, Every Hunter Wants to Know

“Whenever I’m with her, I feel wise and strong—simply because she’s not.”
― Mikhail Iossel, Every Hunter Wants to Know

“My head was reeling. My eyelids were heavy. But I knew what to do. We, the trainmen, had a cure for drowsiness. I picked up a pocketknife from the table and lightly cut my forefinger. Then I sprinkled the cut with salt from the box on my table. The pain, unbearable at first, subsided in a moment. Now I felt miserable and angry.”
― Mikhail Iossel, Every Hunter Wants to Know

“I had never seen a photo of a naked woman before—only paintings and sculptures in the Hermitage.”
― Mikhail Iossel, Every Hunter Wants to Know

“Each one appeared less a human being than an extension of his fixed bayonet.”
― Mikhail Iossel, Every Hunter Wants to Know

“His apartment was on the twenty-fifth floor and cost him $3000 a month. He was in his early twenties and had a stupidly disarming smile. “Welcome to my shabby shack!” he said, beaming. I realized that he was just a clean-cut boy, not too bright, understandably proud of his luck. It occurred to me that I’d had a better life behind me than he could ever hope to live: I had seen many more interesting things than he could ever learn from watching movies! It was unpleasant to realize that I had to feel my superiority over this kid in order to feel good and comfortable in his comfortable, spacious apartment.”
― Mikhail Iossel, Every Hunter Wants to Know

“The Kremlin Wall was the color of coagulated blood. Its tooth-edged outline served a quiet warning to an enemy.”
― Mikhail Iossel, Every Hunter Wants to Know

“I knew they were thought of as fools. I also knew they were clever.”
― Mikhail Iossel, Every Hunter Wants to Know

“Maybe it was just a spur-of-the-moment, “why not?” wild kind of thing that spontaneous people like him often do. I could easily see that: you’re sitting in the kitchen amid the smells of stale food, in the dark glow of a White Night, surrounded by dirty utensils and half-empty glasses and empty wine bottles. You look around morosely—and the window is ajar. Slowly you get up off your stool—there were no chairs in that kitchen when I was there—and walk to the window. Then, of course, this “why not?” thing can’t help crossing your mind. It occurs to you that this is something that you have never done before: life has already happened to you, but not death. Because of the uncertain light and the nauseatingly sweet wine in your blood, everything is slow, like in a dream sequence where the action takes place above the clouds on a gray day. So you just do it. A second before you’re on the win-dowsill, a second after you’re nowhere, leaving it to someone else to wonder about the fragility of his own life. The instant is like a membrane: you prick it with a pin and the balloon explodes, the phone stops working, you become deaf, and you know that your heart, too, may explode unpredictably, and that your body can burst with a cancer that it has been nurturing for months, and your plane can come apart high in the sky.”
― Mikhail Iossel, Every Hunter Wants to Know

“I was three years old and learning how to read.”
― Mikhail Iossel, Every Hunter Wants to Know

“The moment I closed my eyes I pictured the naked women from the magazine. I was afraid that I had gone insane and would never be able to think of anything else.”
― Mikhail Iossel, Every Hunter Wants to Know

“Every time I read a newspaper, recognizing by experience the real meaning of each word that has been omitted, I feel sad, and even a little scared:”
― Mikhail Iossel, Every Hunter Wants to Know

“I was never good at telling intelligent people from mere self-confident fools, the know-it-alls, because I didn’t and couldn’t know, growing up, that, of course, those who claim to possess the whole truth usually know little or nothing.”
― Mikhail Iossel, Every Hunter Wants to Know

“They spoke with the finality of omniscient illiterates.”
― Mikhail Iossel, Every Hunter Wants to Know

“enjoying the danger—more imaginary than real, yet still sweet.”
― Mikhail Iossel, Every Hunter Wants to Know

“I left my prestigious “mainstream” job and became what I had always wanted to be—a writer, a nightguard, a gas-stoker, a public park attendant, a nobody, a turned-down applicant for an exit visa, a refusenik, a happy man, a serious disappointment to my parents.”
― Mikhail Iossel, Every Hunter Wants to Know

“Real life is often more literary than the works of literature. That’s because it doesn’t have to appear credible.”
― Mikhail Iossel, Every Hunter Wants to Know

“I realized that I was a bad listener: I paid too much attention to the words.”
― Mikhail Iossel, Every Hunter Wants to Know