3 Quotes & Sayings By Keith Gessen

Keith Gessen worked as a critic at the New York Times from 2006 to 2012. He is currently a staff writer at The New Yorker. His story “The Return of the Soviet Antichrist” was a finalist for the National Magazine Award in 2015. He lives in New York City with his wife and daughter.

One changes, as a writer, fairly quickly; what you wrote...
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One changes, as a writer, fairly quickly; what you wrote six months or a year ago might not sound right anymore. Keith Gessen
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We hurt one another. We go through life dressing up in new clothes and covering up our true motives. We meet up lightly, we drink rosé wine, and then we give each other pain. We don't want to! What we want to do, what one really wants to do is put out one's hands–like some dancer, in a trance, just put out one's hands–and touch all the people and tell them: I'm sorry. I love you. Thank you for your e-mail. Thank you for coming to see me. Thank you. But we can't. We can't. On the little life raft of Mark only one other person could fit. Just one! And so, thwarted, we inflict pain. That’s what we do. We do not keep each other company. We do not send each other cute text messages. Or, rather, when we do these things, we do them merely to postpone the moment when we'll push these people off, and beat forward, beat forward on our little raft, alone. . Keith Gessen