What Should I Say About

Judge: And What Is Your Occupation In General? Brodsky: Poet, Poet-translator. Judge: And Who Recognized You To Be A Poet? Who Put You In The Ranks Of Poet? Brodsky: No One. And Who Put Me In The Ranks Of Humanity? Judge: Did You Study It?...how To Be A Poet? Did You Attempt To Finish An Insitute Of Higher Learning...where They Prepare...teach Brodsky: I Did Not Think That It Is Given To One By Education. Judge: By What Then? Brodsky: I Think That It Is From God.

If One's Fated To Be Born In Caesar's Empire, Let Him Live Aloof, Provincial, By The Seashore.

There Are Worse Crimes Than Burning Books. One Of Them Is Not Reading Them.

I Didn't Want To Be Either The Cre`me De La Cre`me Or A Martyr. I'd Rather Be A Novelty, Especially In A Democracy That Doesn't Understand The Language I Write In.

If They Had Wanted To Punish Me, They Should Have Kept Me In A Communal Apartment. Then I Would Have Become A Wreck.