Gogol Quotes

• Also, though not over-elderly, he was not over-young.

  Nikolai Gogol

  Elderly, Young

  Nikolai Gogol (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Nikolai Gogol (Illustrated)”, p.132, Delphi Classics

  17 Copy quote

  Show source

• I am fated to journey hand in hand with my strange heroes and to survey the surging immensity of life, to survey it through the laughter that all can see and through the tears unseen and unknown by anyone.

  Nikolai Gogol

  Laughter, Hero, Journey

  "Dead Souls". Book by Nikolai Gogol. Volume 1, Chapter 7, 1842.

  12 Copy quote

  Show source

• We all come out from Gogol's 'Overcoat'.

  Fyodor Dostoevsky

  Overcoat, Russian Literature

  8 Copy quote

• I love the Russian absurdists - [Nikolai] Gogol,[Daniil] Kharms, and [Vladimir] Bulgakov. Even within the Russian experimentalists, there's a lineage of traditional narrative, conflict, and character development, which I find vital to my storytelling.

  Alexander Weinstein

  Character, Development, Narrative

  Source: www.raintaxi.com

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• Nothing could be more pleasant than to live in solitude, enjoy the spectacle of nature, and occasionally read some book.

  Nikolai Gogol

  Book, Solitude, Enjoy

  Nikolai Gogol (2011). “Dead Souls: A Novel”, p.26, Vintage

  79 Copy quote

  Show source

• I love [Nikolai] Gogol's great eye for idiot behavior. Gogol said that life is so tragic, so stupendously sad that we'd better laugh a lot and enjoy ourselves. You either get a sense of humor going or you go under.

  Mel Brooks

  Eye, Laughing, Sense Of Humor

  10 Copy quote

• First book was handwritten, then the printing press, now we've got our Kindles. To be able to push a button and a dictionary comes up. And then, at my age, that I can make the letters any size I want, and that I can carry all of William Shakespeare, all of Gogol, all of Franz Kafka in my handbag? You've got to love it.

  Lore Segal

  Book, Age, Printing

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Russian culture is multifaceted and diverse. So if you want to understand, to feel Russia, then of course you need to read books, Tolstoy and Chekhov and Gogol and others. Listen to music. Tchaikovsky. Watch our classical ballet. But the most important thing is that you need to talk with people.

  Vladimir Putin

  Book, People, Ballet

  "Putin Discusses Trump, OPEC, Rosneft, Brexit, Japan". Interview with John Micklethwait, www.bloomberg.com. September 5, 2016.

  50 Copy quote

  Show source

• I don't want to hurt you, Mistress Weatherwax," said Mrs Gogol. "That's good," said Granny. "I don't want you to hurt me either.

  Terry Pratchett

  Hurt, Mistress, Want

  "Witches Abroad". Book by ‎Terry Pratchett, 1991.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• I love the Russian classics very much, the Russian classical literature. But I also read modern literature. As far as Russian literature is concerned, I am very fond of Tolstoy and Chekhov, and I also enjoy reading Gogol very much.

  Vladimir Putin

  Reading, Literature, Chekhov

  8 Copy quote

• I'm listening to Gogol Bordello, which is totally random, but I love him. Just finished the new Joan Didion book, Blue Nights, which I loved. I haven't been to the movies in God knows how long. I haven't been doing anything but living in a bubble, making jewelry!

  Pamela Love

  Book, I Love Him, Night

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• You're part of the human fabric of experience. You don't have to have cancer to write about cancer. You don't have to have somebody close to you die to understand what death is. Definitely, the more you live, the more experiences fall into your spectrum. As a writer, you must have been told: Write about what you know. But Kafka didn't. Gogol didn't. Did Shakespeare write only what he knew? Our own selves are limitless. And our capacity for empathy is giant.

  Regina Spektor

  Cancer, Fall, Writing

  "What Regina Spektor Sees From the Cheap Seats". Interview with Hannah Levintova, www.motherjones.com. May/June 2012.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Open this notebook every day and write down half a page at the very least. If you have nothing to write down, then at least, following Gogol’s advice, write down that today there’s nothing to write. Always write with attention and look on writing as a holiday.

  Daniil Kharms

  Notebook, Writing, Holiday

  Daniil Kharms (2007). “Today I Wrote Nothing: The Selected Writing of Daniil Kharms”, Overlook Press

  18 Copy quote

  Show source

• Gogol is unaccustomed to this sort of talk at mealtimes, to the indulgent ritual of the lingering meal, and the pleasant aftermath of bottles and crumbs and empty glasses that clutter the table.

  Jhumpa Lahiri

  Glasses, Meals, Aftermath

  Jhumpa Lahiri (2004). “The Namesake: A Novel”, p.134, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• I doubt whether the Revolution has, in essentials, changed Russia at all. Reading Gogol, or Dostoevsky for that matter, one realizes how completely the Soviet regime has fallen back on to, and perhaps invigorated, the old Russia. Certainly there is much more of Gogol and Dostoievsky in the regime than there is of Marx.

  Malcolm Muggeridge

  Reading, Russia, Doubt

  "Like it was: The Diaries of Malcolm Muggeridge". Book by Malcolm Muggeridge, p. 252, 1981.

  13 Copy quote

  Show source

• In many ways, I feel like having the opportunity to play Gogol in 'The Namesake' really was my dream role in many ways.

  Kal Penn

  Dream, Opportunity, Play

  "Kal Penn–From Hollywood to the White House and back to the big screen". Interview with Kam Williams, www.philasun.com. November 6, 2011.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Gogol remembers having to do the same thing when he was younger, when his grandparents died...He remembers, back then, being bored by it, annoyed at having to observe a ritual no one else he knew followed, in honor of people he had seen only a few times in his life...Now, sitting together at the kitchen table at six-thirty every evening, his father's chair empty, this meatless meal is the only thing that seems to make sense.

  Jhumpa Lahiri

  Father, People, Grandparent

  "The Namesake". Book by Jhumpa Lahiri, 2003.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Try to remember it always," he said once Gogol had reached him, leading him slowly back across the breakwater, to where his mother and Sonia stood waiting. "Remember that you and I made this journey together to a place where there was nowhere left to go.

  Jhumpa Lahiri

  Mother, Journey, Waiting

  Jhumpa Lahiri (2004). “The Namesake: A Novel”, p.187, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• I like reading... French, Russian classics - Gogol, Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Flaubert. I also like Hemingway, Virginia Woolf.

  Andrea Bocelli

  Reading, Virginia, Dostoyevsky

  5 Copy quote