Quotes by Sergei Lukyanenko

When leaders betray their people and the people dont overthrow them, its not just the leaders who should be blamed.

I get the same buzz cleaning up the yard as Leo Tolstoy did from scything hay.

Drink your coffee, it clears out the brain in the morning

An assassin can be found for every president. And for every prophet there are a thousand interpreters to distort the essence of the religion, to replace the bright flame with the heat of the inquisitors pyres. The time came when every book was cast into the fire, when every symphony was reduced to a popular tune and played in all the drinking dens. A sound philosophical basis could be set in place under any vile nonsense.

The laws of nature are not intelligent,’ I replied. ‘The force of gravity is not intelligent. Electricity is not intelligent. A savage looking at a television might assume that it’s a sapient being, but we—’‘A sapient being? Looking at a television these days, the only possible assumption is that it’s a loud-mouthed, hysterical madman suffering from progressive mental debility,’ Anna Tikhonovna said derisively.

People dont usually think about the meaning of the words they say. It seems to them that words convey truth. That when someone hears the word red he will think of a ripe raspberry and not a pool of blood. That the word love will evoke Shakespeares sonnets and not the erotic films of Playboy. And they find themselves baffled when the word theyve spoken doesnt evoke the right response.

What if it turns out there really are witches and vampires and werewolves living right here alongside us? After all, what better disguise could there be than to get your image enshrined in the culture of the mass media? Anything thats described in artistic terms and shown in the movies stops being frightening and mysterious. For real horror you need the spoken word, you need an old grandpa sitting on a bench, scaring the grandkids in the evening: And then the Master of the house came to him and said: I wont let you go, Ill tie you up and bind you tight and youll rot under the fallen branches! Thats the way to make people wary of anomalous phenomena! Kids sense that, you know–its no wonder they love telling stories about the Black Han and the Coffin on Wheels. But modern literature, and especially the movies, it all just dilutes that instinctive horror. How can you feel afraid of Dracula, if hes been killed a hundred times? How can you be afraid of aliens, if our guys always squelch them? Yes, Hollywood is the great luller of human vigilance. A toast–to the death of Hollywood, for depriving us of a healthy fear of the unknown!

“What was my truth worth, if I was prepared to defend the entire world, but not those who were close to me? If I subdued hate, but wouldnt give love a chance?”

“Love is happiness, but only when you believe it will last forever. Even though every time it turns out to be a lie, it’s only faith that gives love its strength and its joy.”