Lyudmila Ulitskaya Quotes

Literature is the best thing humanity has. Poetry is the heart of literature, the highest concentration of everything that is the best in the world and in man. It is the only true food for your soul

От толкова години с теб сме заедно, че втори януари пак е вторник. Бродски, "Шесть лет спустя

Judgment is not always required. You don't need to have an opinion on every issue.

Form is what transforms the content of a work into its essence.

...Милая моя жена! Ошибка в Библии - не из ребра Адама сотворена была Ева, а из сердца вырезана. Я физически чуствую это место в сердце.

Писателя формируют либо жизнь + книги, либо только книги, но никогда только жизнь без книг.

Открих, че за учителя интелектуалната активност на учениците, умението да поставят, да обръщат наопаки и дори да анулират самия въпрос са по-важни от същността на учението.

„Повдигаше ми се от националната идея във всяка нейна трактовка.

Иногда, по глазам угадав не высказанную еще мысль, они цитировали любимого Бродского: «Так долго вместе прожили, что вновь второе января пришлось на вторник…»

I recognize that what you believe doesn’t matter in the slightest. All that matters is how you personally behave.

Есть браки, скрепляющиеся в постели, есть — распускающиеся на кухне, под мелкую музыку столового ножа и венчика для взбивания белков, встречаются супруги-строители, производящие ремонты, закупающие по случаю дешевые пиломатериалы для дачного участка, гвозди, олифу и стекловату, иные держатся на вдохновенных скандалах. Брак Маши и Алика совершался в беседах

She had been a widow considerably longer than she had been a wife, and her relationship with her departed husband was as good as ever and was even improving with the years.

Sonechka, meanwhile, placid soul that she was—cocooned by the thousand volumes of her reading, lulled by the hazy murmurings of the Greek myths, the hypnotically shrill recorder fluting of the Middle Ages, the misty windswept yearning of Ibsen, the minutely detailed tedium of Balzac, the astral music of Dante, the siren song of the piercing voices of Rilke and Novalis, seduced by the moralistic despair of the great Russian writers calling out to the heart of heaven itself—this placid soul had no awareness that her great moment was at hand.

Literature is the best thing humanity has. Poetry is the heart of literature, the highest concentration of everything that is the best in the world and in man. It is the only true food for your soul.

Бывают у людей таланты простые, как яблоко, очевидные, как яйцо, — к математике, к музыке, к рисованию, даже к собиранию грибов или к игре в пинг-понг. С Михой было сложнее. Талантов на первый взгляд не было, но были хорошие способности: к поэзии, к музыке, к рисованию. Настоящий его талант, полученный им от рождения, невооруженным глазом был не виден. Он был одарен такой душевной отзывчивостью, такой безразмерной, совершенно эластичной способностью к состраданию, что все прочие его качества оказывались в подчинении этой «всемирной жалости».

Възможно е през дългия си живот да съм успял да направя няколко крачки по пътя към свободата, но това, с което определено не успях да се справя, е националността. Не успях да престана да бъда евреин. Еврейството е натрапчиво и авторитарно, проклета гърбица и прекрасен дар, то диктува логиката и начина на мислене, сковава и те обгръща като в пелена. То е неотменимо както пола. Еврейството ограничава свободата. Винаги съм искал да изляза отвъд неговите предели – излизах, отивах, където си искам – по други пътища, десет, двайсет, трийсет години, но в някой момент откривах, че не съм стигнал доникъде.

He was a committed ladies' man and obtained a great deal of sustenance from the seemingly inexhaustible supply of women, but he guarded himself vigilantly against addiction, fearful of becoming fodder for that feminine allure which is so paradoxically generous to those who take from it and so destructively cruel to those who give.

I find attempts to create bilingual gospels laughable, in particular the attempt to translate the service from Church Slavonic into Russian. What for? In order not to make the effort and not to learn the divine, if somewhat artificial but solemn, language specially carved for this purpose? This language also provides a link with a tradition which is realized at depths and which the modern Russian language cannot plumb.

When I was young I believed people should be told everything and that, as a pastor, I had a duty to share all my knowledge. Over the years I came to see that was a mistake. A person may know only what they are capable of assimilating. I have been thinking about this for half my life, and especially since I have been in Israel, but there are few people I can confide in. Really only you. You see, it is a terrible thing to disturb someone’s equilibrium. If a person has become accustomed to thinking in a particular way, even a slight digression from that can prove painful. Not everybody is open to new ideas, to making their understanding more precise and supplementing it, to change. I have to admit that I am changing. Today my views on many matters have diverged from those generally accepted in the Catholic world, and I am not the only person in that situation. “You see, the birth of the One whom

Искусственное прерываение беременности он считал самой тяжелой из гинекологических операций в моральном отношении, и для женщины, и для врача... Но разве не здесь пролегает существенная разница между человеком и животным, возможность и право выхода за пределы биологического закона - производить потомство не по воле природных ритмов, а по собственному желанию? Не здесь ли реализуется человеческий выбор, право на свободу, в конце концов? («Казус Кукоцкого», Л. Улицкая)

I'm afraid, Ilya Isayevich, that you don't have the slightest idea what the function of the secret police is. Exhibits disappear from libraries, personal archives, from museums. They are stolen, sold, exchanged, sometimes consciously destroyed. But I can assure you, in the archives of the secret police nothing is ever lost. True, the number of people granted access to them is extremely limited. But, believe me, there is no place more reliable for safekeeping. Nothing every goes missing there! Moreover, it is the very place where historical truth is preserved.

Mỗi một ngày trôi qua đều không hòa lẫn vào những ngày khác, mà được Sonechka ghi nhớ một cách riêng biệt, khi thì với cơn mưa lười biếng ban trưa, khi thì với một con chim lớn chân cong, lông màu sắt gỉ, từ đâu bay đến đậu trên hàng rào, hoặc với chiếc răng sữa đầu tiên nứt ra trên hàng lợi sưng của con gái. Sonechka gìn giữ suốt đời hình ảnh của từng ngày riêng biệt, hương vị, màu sắc của nó, từng lời nói của chồng, những câu ngoa dụ đặc biệt và lý lẽ chắc nịch, được nói ra trong một phút giây nào đó. Cô cần cái công việc tinh tế và vô nghĩa lý này của trí nhớ.

Както и да се определят самите евреи, всъщност тях ги определят отвън: евреин е този, когото неевреите смятат за евреин. Затова на кръстените евреи не им правеха никакви отстъпки: и те бяха подложени на унищожение. Участието ми в Нюрнбергския процес бе по-тежко, отколкото пребиваването в гетото и при партизаните. Изгледаните филмови ленти, заснети от немците в концлагерите и от съюзниците след освобождението, подкопаха моето еврейско съзнание: не ми се искаше да бъда повече средноевропеец и заминахме за Палестина. Заминахме там, за да бъдем евреи. Но за такова нещо пък не ми достигаше еврейската маниакалност.

Кормили в санатории преизобильно, как-то оскорбительно для Василисы, так что, чуть освоившись, она отказалась ходить на завтрак и на обед, а приходила вместе со всеми только на ужин, занимала место за отведенным им отдельным столиком и наслаждалась обслуживанием. Официантки ставили ей еду, спрашивали, почему опять не приходила на обед и не подать ли чего еще… Одновременно с удовольствием она еще испытывала некоторое беспокойство, потому что по своему невеликому, но цепкому уму твердо знала, что если у кого-то излишки, то есть и такие, у кого жестокие недостатки… И христианская ее душа, несмотря на роскошь отдыха, испытывала легкий стыд. В конце концов она призналась Елене, что если в раю будет вот так же вот, то придется ей на какое другое место попроситься, потому что делается совестно. («Казус Кукоцкого», Л. Улицкая)

Несмышленые малыши, человеческие личинки, они потребляют всякую пищу, какую ни кинь, сосут, жуют, глотают все подряд впечатления, а потом окукливаются, и внутри куколки все складывается в нужном порядке, выстраивается необходимым образом – рефлексы отработаны, навыки воспитаны, первичные представления о мире усвоены. Но сколько куколок погибает, не достигнув последней своей фазы, так и не треснув по шву, не выпустив из себя бабочку. Анима, анима, душенька… Цветная, летающая, короткоживущая – и прекрасная. А какое множество так и остается личинками и живет до самой смерти, не догадываясь, что взрослость так и не пришла. [...] Нравственное созревание представлялось ему столь же закономерной особенностью человека, как и биологическое, идущее параллельно. Но пробуждение происходит по-разному, и зона эта сильно варьирует в зависимости от индивидуального склада и некоторых других причин. Нравственное пробуждение, или «нравственная инициация», как он полагал, происходит у мальчиков в возрасте от одиннадцати до четырнадцати лет, обычно при наличии специальных неблагоприятных обстоятельств — несчастье или неблагополучная семейная жизнь, унижение достоинства личного или достоинства близких людей, потеря родного человека. Словом, переворачивающее душу, пробуждающее ее событие. У каждого человека имеется своя собственная «болевая точка», и именно с нее и начинается эта персональная революция личности. Почти обязательным в этом процессе, по мысли Виктора Юльевича, оказывается присутствие «инициатора» — учителя, наставника, старшего друга, а если родственника, то достаточно дальнего. Как и в случае с крещением, в обычных условиях, вне опасности для жизни, кровные родители редко бывают восприемниками. В исключительных случаях таким «инициатором» может послужить даже вовремя пришедшая в руки книга.

Чудо и лепота. Моцартов концерт N° 23 за фортепијано са оркестром. Причу везану за тај концерт испричала му је некада Јевгенија Даниловна: Стаљин је на радију чуо тај концерт у извођењу Јудине и пожелео да има плочу. Она није постојала. Те ноћи су дигли Јудину, диригента и цео оркестар, одвели у студио за снимање, снимили, и до ујутро је један примерак плоче био готов. Стаљин је богато наградио пијанисткињу. Прича се да јој је послао коверат са двадесет хиљада рубаља. Она је вођи одговорила писмом: новац је дала цркви, а за њега ће се молити да му господ опрости његова злодела. Стаљин јој је опростио. Казао је: јуродива...

Ако го съживим, ще е човек… красив… умен… човеците раждат деца… ще може да строи и да рисува… нека бъде жив…

И че човечеството можело да стане по-добро и качествено чрез смесени бракове.

Сега бе останал само бракът, като на всички, може би дори по-добър, отколкото на мнозина. Понеже много хора живеят както дойде, от ден на ден и от година на година, без да изпитват нито радост, нито щастие – просто по навик, механично.

Нещо повече, недалеч от Мюнхен е имало огромен лагер за унищожение – Дахау. Повече от всичко ме потресе това, че там живеят хора, спят, ядат, смеят се – и нищо…!

It’s just a psychological cliché you brought over with you from Russia. I assure you there are no non-believers, particularly among artistic people. The nature of faith varies—the greater the intellect, the more complex the form it takes. There’s also a form of intellectual chastity which won’t allow anything to be discussed or articulated. We’re surrounded by the most vulgar forms of primitive religiosity, and it’s hard to bear …

… въобще няма значение в какво вярваш, значение има само личното поведение.

Масовите идеологии освобождават хората от морални устои, в младостта си бях носител на такива идеологии, а по-късно, оказвайки се на окупираната от фашистите територия – тяхна жертва.

В удостоверението ми за самоличност е написано: „националност“ – неопределена“!

Но смутные эволюционные идеи не покидали его. Он испытывал прилив невиданной смелости и втайне замахнулся на создание единого закона, некоей обшей теории музыкальных систем. Сравнить этот замах можно было разве что с созданием общей теории поля. Как шелкопряд, постоянно вытягивающий из себя драгоценную нить, он выстраивал вокруг себя блестящий кокон и готов был окуклиться в нем, чтобы прорваться в конце концов к умозрительному, но подлинному миру. Это было опасно, потому что, оступившись, был риск попасть в мир чистого безумия.

Может, мир спасет красота, или истина, или еще какая-нибудь прекрасная хрень, но страх все равно всего сильней, страх все погубит — все зародыши красоты, ростки прекрасного, мудрого, вечного…

когда мы выщли из гетто и оказались в Черной Пуще, он сказал мне: ты бы хотела, Эстер, чтобы у нас было сейчас трое детей? И я честно ответила- нет.

все сердечные вакансии растрачены на умерши

Всю жизнь меня занимает тема личной свободы. Оно всегда представлялась мне высщим благом. Возможно, что за долгую жизнь мне удалось сделать нескольло щагов в направлении свободы, но с чем мне определенно не удалось справиться, от чего я не смог освободиться,- ето национальность. Я не смог перестать быть евреем. Еврейство навязчиво и авторитарно, проклятый горб и прекрасный дар, оно диктует логику и образ мыслей,сковывает и пеленает. Оно неотменино, как пол. Еврейство ограничивает свободу. Я всегда хотел выти за его пределы- выходил, щел куда угодно, по другим дорогам, десять, двадцать, тридцать лет, но обнаруживал в какой-то момунт, что никуда не прищел.

Исаак говорил, что в ХХ веке бездетность стала для евреев таким же даром небес, как многочадие в исторические времена...

...tikėkite kaip norite, tai jūsų asmeninis reikalas, tačiau priesakų laikykitės, elkitės kaip ir dera. Beje, norint elgtis kaip dera, netgi nebūtina būti krikščionimi. Galima būti netgi niekuo. Paskutiniu agnostiku, besparniu ateistu.

Той мръщи носле, шава с пръстчета, потропва с крачета и още не мисли за глупостите, които ни занимават: смисъла на живота например…

Винаги съм смятал, че съвременният свят трябва да бъде изграден не на национален принцип, а на гражданско-териториален. Гражданите, живеещи в пределите на дадена територия, имат правото и са длъжни да организират държавата. А законодателството трябва да осигури това. Малко хора се съгласяват с моите идеи…

… Даниел бе закрил с тялото си непреодолимата пропаст между юдаизма и християнството и докато беше жив, в пространството на неговия живот всичко дишаше единно, чрез усилието на неговото съществуване кървящата рана се изцели. Не за дълго.

Работата е там, че половината от живота си съм прекарал сред хора, търсещи Господ в книгите и обредите, които сами са измислили.

But these two? Robert thought a

Аспирантка рассказывала о работах новосибирского генетика Б. по «одомашниванию» чернобурых лис, животных агрессивных и опасных. Оказалось, что при последовательном отборе наиболее послушных животных и скрещивании их между собой в энном поколении качество шерсти у них резко ухудшилось, а сами лисицы, ставшие послушными и доверчивыми, загавкали по-собачьи. Таким образом, на воротники для генеральских жен годились лишь те лисицы, которые на хорошие отношения с человеком никак не соглашались. Лисицы с плохим поведением. Те, что научились лизать руку, дающую корм, ни на что другое не годились. («Казус Кукоцкого», Л. Улицкая)

Как будто смерть всегда скрывается внутри человеческого тела, только сверху прикрытая живой плотью. («Казус Кукоцкого», Л. Улицкая)

Общая печать странной целеустремленности и сосредоточенности при полнейшей неопределенности движения. («Казус Кукоцкого», Л. Улицкая)

Она у нас бессчастна и бесталанна. («Казус Кукоцкого», Л. Улицкая)

It is hot, the light is strong and I have an extraordinary sense of clarity, although quite what is clear I cannot express.

Looking at Rita, I have long found social injustice preferable to the struggle against it.

Отношенията ни с мъжа ми бяха толкова пълноценни, че никога не ми се е искало да прибавям нещо към тях.

Повдигаше ми се от националната идея във всяка нейна трактовка.

„Масовите идеологии освобождават хората от морални устои, в младостта си бях носител на такива идеологии, а по-късно, оказвайки се на окупираната от фашистите територия – тяхна жертва.

„Работата е там, че половината от живота си съм прекарал сред хора, търсещи Господ в книгите и обредите, които сами са измислили.

Yurik's room became their love nest. And a messier room the world had never seen. It was a jumble of dirty socks strewn about the floor, sheet music, CDs, cigarette butts, paper plates, and half-filled cans of Coke. An old Hammond organ, left behind by former tenants, stood in the hallway, blocking half the entrance and leaving only a narrow space to squeeze through. This was the room where the young couple broadened their knowledge of the world, from time to time ingesting substances that took them to other places and realities. But when Laura finished high school, and showed her parents the report card with grades that would never get her admitted into a decent college, she announced to Yurik that he had no prospects, and danced off forever. After leaving Yurik and giving him his first broken heart, she went to California. Then she flew off to the places where fearless and brainless enthusiasts of dangerous journeys fly to.

She discovered that her perception of the world had become doubled, as though it had acquired a stereoscopic property. A pleasant puff of wind blowing through the window became both frightening and alarming, because Yurik turned over in his crib from the stream of air on his cheeks. The tap of a hammer in the apartment above, which she wouldn't even have noticed before, was painful to her ears, and she responded to these blows from the depths of her body, just like the baby. ... She hoped that when she stopped breast-feeding him her familiar world would re-establish itself. But this never happened. On the contrary, it was as though, together with the baby, she was learning to know what was soft, hard, hot, or sharp; she looked at the branch of a tree, a toy, any object at all, with primordial curiosity. Just like him, she ripped pages of newsprint and listened to the rustling of the paper; she licked his toys, noting that the plastic duck was more pleasing to the tongue than the rubber kitten. Once, after she had fed Yurik, she was wiping the sticky cream of wheat off the table with her hand and she caught herself thinking that there was indeed something pleasurable about smearing it on the surface. Yurik was thrilled when he saw his mother doing what he liked to do, and started slapping his little palm in the mess of porridge. Both of them were rubbing their hands around on the tabletop. Both of them were happy.

After the funeral, they went to a private club in Chelsea, where they drank and jammed the night away together—greats and nobodies alike. The slightly acrimonious, sardonic Mickey, a fan of folk and world music, would have been pleased. [...] Yurik played, too, his own composition, which he had been working on for the entire year. In memory of Mickey. For it was Mickey, who had lived so easily, so lightly, and had died so painfully, who had instilled in Yurik the consciousness that, in the highest sense, music had no authorship. It was a gift, and an ability to read the divine book, to transpose a universal sound that needed no notation into the language of paltry musical instruments, invented for the convenience and purpose of transmitting supremely important messages—messages that could not be conveyed in any other way ... And the best ears, the best hearts and souls of this spiritual dimension called music, listened to Yurik's song that evening. And heard it.

Amalia could hardly keep from crying as she threw out the butts from the ashtray: 'Nora, even drinking is better than smoking. It goes without saying that it's bad for you, but the smell is also disgusting! Chekhov said that kissing a woman who smokes is like licking an ashtray!' Nora dismissed her with a wave of the hand and said, laughing, 'Mama, Chekhov and I will never have to kiss anyway.

Din punctul de vedere al tantarului, omul e nemuritor.

Some marriages are made in bed, while others burgeon in the kitchen to the metallic music of the kitchen knife and the egg whisk; some couples are nest builders, forever redecorating, snapping up bargain lots of timber for their dacha plot, nails, drying oil, and fiberglass wrap; other couples live for blazing, set-piece rows. Masha and Alik’s marriage was consummated in conversations. This was their ninth year together, but every evening when he came home from work, the soup would be left to get cold and the rissoles to burn while they told each other about the important events of the day.

She had been degraded by her husband, betrayed by her sister, abused by fate itself, which had denied her children while the child fathered by her husband, the child that by rights was hers, had been placed in her sister’s relaxed and fun-loving body. The gloom in her soul was made deeper also by the fact that Medea, who had always been on the move herself, was being forced to sit for days at a time by this window where all the movement was outside, in the rolling by of the changing scenery through the window and, to some extent, in the restless movement of other people in the railway carriage.

She had lived on in the Crimea by the grace of God, as she supposed, but partly no doubt also because of the Spanish surname bequeathed by her late husband, a jolly Jewish dentist with vices which were minor but not insignificant, and virtues which were great but meticulously concealed.

Madness, as anyone knows who has observed it at close quarters, is the more infectious the more sensitive the psyche of the person finding themselves in the proximity of the mad person.

Medea smiled to herself and felt reassured. Despite being so much more crowded and having so much more hustle and bustle, the world still functioned in its old way, the way she understood, with small miracles happening, people coming together and parting, and all of it forming a wonderful pattern.

...мы живем в обществе личинок, невыросших людей, подростков, закамуфлированных под взрослых.

Elmúlt az egész életünk, Paweł, és a világ semmivel se lett jobb.

Ajjaj! Tartok én attól a lelki élettől! Tapasztalataim szerint az a bizonyos lelki élet nagyon gyakran válik öncélúvá. Mint valami tréning. Hány olyan kicsi emberrel találkoztam, akik nagy lelki életet éltek, s majdnem mindig kiderült, hogy a lelki élet a saját lelkükben való, felettébb sekélyes kapirgálásra korlátozódik... És mindegyik lelki atyát keres magának!

Rögtön mondta, hogy olvasott rólam, tud a háborús múltamról, és hogy szerinte az egyház számára különösen értékesek a háborút megjárt papok. És akkor azt gondoltam, hogy nem lesz ennek a beszélgetésnek semmi értelme. Nem fogom neki elmondani, hogy mi a valóságos értelme a háborús tapasztalatoknak. Gondoltam, hát nem tudja, hogy a háború csak kérgesíti, torzítja és rombolja az embert?

The next day, she flew back to Moscow. If anyone loved long-distance flights, it was Nora. She loved it when you found yourself nowhere at all—in a sort of abstract space and an indeterminate, vacillating time, when, all of a sudden, all obligations, all promises cease. Everything is put on hold—telephone calls, the mail, requests, offers, complaints—they all stop short, and you hover, you fly, you soar between heaven and earth, between earth and the moon, between the earth and the sun. You fall out of your ordinary system of coordinates. You fly … as Tengiz, my soulmate, had; the only one I knew who had burst through all the boundaries of this world alive, and had learned to inhabit another world—the world of shadows … Tengiz … Love beyond touch, love outside of time.

Why did this music move her? Was it really a signal of some kind? They had all been so musical-both her grandfathers, Alexander and Jacob—and Genrikh … Genrikh … And from her heart a deep lament rose up and choked her, and it was as though it wasn't she crying, but Genrikh in her. Little Genrikh, intolerable little child who threw himself on the floor and thrashed his arms and legs, who wanted to fly a glider or an plane, whom they barred from his beloved profession of aviation—yes, of course, because his father, was an enemy of the people and ruined everything. He was robbed of his dreams, his hopes, his shining, beckoning future. Oh, poor Genrikh! Nora cried together with him, this boy, her future and former father, who had not been given the chance to live the life he dreamed about. He sobbed and gasped for then grew tired and moaned quietly, then howled again, and started throwing a tantrum. Nora just wiped away the tears. How awful! Would his grief never end? Would it never burn out, never die? Would it torment him, and Nora, and the newborn who had only just arrived and was not guilty of anything at all? Is it possible that the evil we commit never dissipates, but hangs above the head of every new child that emerges out of this river of time?

When she was still a child, her daughter had asked Marina, ‘Why do Russians have such bad teeth and greasy hair?’ Marina could have answered this question, but she chose to remain silent; there would have been too much to explain, about how every culture had its own habits: Americans change their T-shirts twice a day and wash every time they come near a shower. But a Russian, from one generation to the next, washed once a week in the bathhouse, on Saturdays, and changed his underwear at the same time. Many of them lived in communal housing, where there was no bathroom at all. And she would also have had to talk about how every shabbily dressed Russian child at their age read as many books in a year as she and her brother were likely to read in a lifetime. And how every decent Russian adult knew as many poems by heart as a professor of philology in this country had ever known.