Elif Batuman

“The problems in the Russian novel are quite similar to the problems of Turkish nationalism and Turkish culture, which was something that I grew up thinking didn't affect me very much because my parents didn't really talk about it.”

“Even in novels where the love relationship isn't the focus, I feel like it's often there, and the background is some barometer of whether this is a happy or sad story or whether this is a successful or unsuccessful life.”

“One of the stories that really impressed me was 'Anna Karenina.' As a novel, that made an impression on me, showing me what the novel can do.”

“As a novelist, you write about social mores, but not everything can be explained.”

“I've developed this love of trashy Russian literature. There's a women's detective series that I was obsessed with for a while, written by Aleksandra Marinina, the former chief of police.”

“A lot of fiction doesn't answer a question that any reasonable person would ever ask.”

“At the beginning of 'A Christmas Carol,' Scrooge embodies one of the central tenets of depression: that one has always been this way - and always will be.”

“I grew up thinking that it was immoral to idealize the past because, in the past, there was slavery and no penicillin.”

“Reading Epictetus, I realized that most of the pain in my life came not from any actual privations or insults but, rather, from the shame of thinking that they could have been avoided.”

“To think of Tolstoy eating a sandwich is intrinsically kind of funny.”

“From an early age, my favorite thing to read was novels. For years, when I was writing only nonfiction, still I was reading almost exclusively novels. It's weird to be producing something that you don't consume. It feels really alienating.”

“Read enough about the dung beetle, and a picture of its character emerges: patient, optimistic, uncomplaining.”

“I do think of 'The Idiot,' in a way, as a self-standing book about a certain struggle to make meaning, the struggle for a girl to find meaning outside of the romance plot.”

“There's this idea that if you want to write, you shouldn't study literature because then you're dissecting what you love, and you should keep your love of literature pure. I think that's kind of silly.”

“Lists are based on realism - on the coldly contemplated finitude of resources.”

“'Constructed Worlds' comes from a novel draft that I wrote in my early twenties and reread/revised only in my late thirties.”

“It's important not to censor yourself and not to get upset or demoralized when you write bad stuff.”

“Proust's 'In Search of Lost Time,' especially 'Time Regained,' made me think differently about what the novel is and can do. Then I forgot about it, then reread it and remembered again.”

“The book that made me decide to go into Russian literature was 'Anna Karenina,' which I first read in high school. The thing that appealed to me and constituted its Russianness for me was that it was simultaneously incredibly funny and sad.”

“Listing and counting have a spooky, magical power, and the holiday season is a spooky, magical time.”