Martin Cruz Smith

“All Russians love melancholy. It's the national pastime.”

“Some people are gift givers; they feel satisfaction when they see joy on someone else's face.”

“I think that the best novels are those that are important to the author, which is why I'm a big fan of Joseph Conrad.”

“A man who's afraid of dying is afraid of living.”

“Humor is a way of holding a mirror up to the world.”

“Everyone wants to be a hero. It's the most ordinary of ambitions.”

“There's no point in being a hero if you have to be a martyr.”