Gary Shteyngart
Gary Shteyngart
Gary Shteyngartis an American writer born in Leningrad, USSR. Much of his work is satirical...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth5 July 1972
CountryUnited States of America
relationship
I have a love/hate relationship with just about everything, but certainly with America.
acting class great indie louise love movies took wife woody
I took an acting class with Louise Lasser, Woody Allen's first wife and co-star in many movies. I've done some other indie films, if you look on the YouTube. I love acting - it's great.
act century club love members minor russian
I'd love to have a 19th Century Russian book club where all the members had to act like the pretentious minor noblemen they were reading about.
people poetry
I think what will happen is that fiction will become more like poetry. As in, the only people who read it will write it.
couple decline feisty love natural
I love things on the decline because that's really the natural progression of our lives. We're born, we're feisty for the first couple of years, and then the inevitable decline begins.
james performing sending writes
In America, everyone writes but no one reads. Everyone's writing all day long - sending emails, tweets, text messages; they all think they're James Cameron's Avatar, performing in some video game for which they make up the script.
cannot doubt humor readers work
Without humor, I cannot go on and I doubt many of my readers would go on either. Humor is so important. I am here to have fun here with my work.
bottom civilization nose pool takes taking
When civilization takes a nose dive, how can you look away? You've got to be there. You've got to be at the bottom of the swimming pool taking notes.
feature tells travel
I like the map feature on the iPhone that tells me where I am, because I travel a lot.
writing voice different
I write five, six days a week. The thing is capturing the voice. I feel like I've been perfecting one voice - in different iterations, sure, but the Russian-ness has always been the undercurrent.
drinking whiskey wonderful
Vodka is a wonderful drink. You can drink so much of it without being as hung over as you would if you were drinking one of the brown liquors - the whiskeys and such. It's a great drink to go with appetizers.
beer cities russia
Russia tried to introduce beer as kind of the new vodka - and it's working with younger people in major cities - but you can have ten shots of vodka and be perfectly okay. If I had ten beers, I would be liquidated.
hurt kids hands
I was a jackass in many ways. I projected that cruelty towards others, that kid whose hand I was wringing. If I could have hurt a hundred weaklings - weaker than me, and I was already very weak - I would. I was dying to hurt somebody, to pay it forward.
children drinking thinking
You can't have a Russian household without vodka. It's just something to wash everything down with. I can't remember a time when I didn't drink vodka, either in Russia or here. I don't think there's ever a wrong time to start drinking it. My ancestors drank it, and if I ever have any children, they'll be drinking it.