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Silence Has Been Destroyed, But Also The Idea That It's Important To Learn How Another Person Thinks, To Enter The Mind Of Another Person. The Whole Idea Of Empathy Is Gone. We Are Now Part Of This Giant Machine Where Every Second We Have To Take Out A Device And Contribute Our Thoughts And Opinions.

-Gary Shteyngart

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Silence Has Been Destroyed,

Gary Shteyngart

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Silence Has Been Destroyed, But Also The Idea That It's Important To Learn How Another Person Thinks, To Enter The Mind Of Another Person. The Whole Idea Of Empathy Is Gone. We Are Now Part Of This Giant Machine Where Every Second We Have To Take Out A Device And Contribute Our Thoughts And Opinions.

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Freedom Is Anathema To Dreams Nurtured In Captivity.

All Of My Books Have An Element Of A Man Who Is In Love With Somebody And Needs Them Desperately, Not Just For Procreation But For Being Able To Fully Unbosom Himself. He Only Feels Comfortable Discussing Things With Women. Which Is Funny, Because 80 Percent Of Readers Are Women!

In America, The Distance Between Wanting Something And Having It Delivered To Your Living Room Is Not Terribly Great.

The Only Way To Write About Right Now Is To Write About The Future.

I Have My Own Dying Empire To Contend With, And I Do Not Wish For Any Other.

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My Mother Cranes Her Neck. Her Ability To Be Fascinated By Things Is Her Best Gift To Me.

By Reading This Message You Are Denying Its Existence And Implying Consent.

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Michigan, With Its Delicious American Name. How Lucky One Must Be To Live There.

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Forget The Fountain Of Youth, Pal Of Mine. You Can Live To Be A Thousand, And It Won't Matter. Mediocrities Like You Deserve Immortality.

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Satire Always Benefits When Evil And Stupidity Collide.

Good Fiction Makes Me Turn Off All The Other Parts Of My Brain, So That I Become Quiet And Submissive, Entirely At The Mercy Of The Work At Hand.

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If You Read Only One Memoir By A Disaffected, Urban, 20-something Jewish Girl This Year, Make It This One. Shukert Rocks The Lulav.

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My Hair Would Continue To Gray, And Then One Day, It Would Fall Out Entirely, And Then, On A Day Meaninglessly Close To The Present One, Meaninglessly Like The Present One, I Would Disappear From The Earth. And All These Emotions, All These Yearnings, All These Data, If That Helps To Clinch The Enormity Of What I'm Talking About, Would Be Gone. And That's What Immortality Means. It Means Selfishness. My Generations Belief That Each One Of Us Matters More Than You Or Anyone Else Would Think.

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