Joseph Brodsky Quotes

"This is the generation whose first cry of life was the Hungarian uprising."

"For the poet the credo or doctrine is not the point of arrival but is, on the contrary, the point of departure for the metaphysical journey."

"For a writer only one form of patriotism exists: his attitude toward language."

"The real history of consciousness starts with one's first lie."

"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."

"It is well to read everything of something, and something of everything."

"It would be enough for me to have the system of a jury of twelve versus the system of one judge as a basis for preferring the U.S. to the Soviet Union. I would prefer the country you can leave to the country you cannot."