A poet’s autobiography is his poetry. Anything else is just a footnote. Yevgeny Yevtushenko
He who is conceived in a cage yearns for the cage. Yevgeny Yevtushenko
A show of envy is an insult to oneself. Yevgeny Yevtushenko
In Russia all tyrants believe poets to be their worst enemies. Yevgeny Yevtushenko
Poetry is like a bird, it ignores all frontiers. Yevgeny Yevtushenko
Justice is like a train that is nearly always late. Yevgeny Yevtushenko
Only when the sense of the pain of others begins does man begin. Yevgeny Yevtushenko
Why is it that right-wing bastards always stand shoulder to shoulder in solidarity, while liberals fall out among themselves? Yevgeny Yevtushenko
In general, in poetry and literature, I am among those people who believe that too much is indispensable. Yevgeny Yevtushenko
Everything I do, I do on the principle of Russian borscht. You can throw everything into it – beets, carrots, cabbage, onions, everything you want. What’s important is the result, the taste of the borscht. Yevgeny Yevtushenko
Give me a mystery – just a plain and simple one – a mystery which is diffidence and silence, a slim little, barefoot mystery: give me a mystery – just one! Yevgeny Yevtushenko