Ian Frazier Quotes
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Siberia is a state of mind.
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Writing humor for me is more like a watchful-ness. You have to watch. When you say something funny, or someone else does, it's more like you wait for the piece.
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I think Indians dress better than anyone, but I don't want to imitate more than a detail or two; I prefer my clothes humdrum and inconspicuous, and a cowboy hat just doesn't work for me.
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Human connection is the way things work. It's like a patronage system. You know somebody, and he knows somebody, and he knows somebody, and he knows the district governor, and it's okay.
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Once, America's size in the imagination was limitless. After Europeans settled and changed it, working from the coasts inland, its size in the imagination shrank.
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Despite the obvious benefits, many Americans do not like Texas. Some even say they despise Texas, and make no secret of their feelings.
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I only saw one English-speaking person all the way across Siberia.
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You can find dozens of books about people taking the Trans-Siberian Railroad. I knew I had to do something different to cross Siberia. To drive and to talk with people along the way, that was how I wrote my book 'Great Plains'. I drove and camped in Siberia, but did not have a real program.
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I don't have a disregard for my reader in humor pieces.
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I am an author, and like many in my profession, I am also a traveling salesman, going all over in an attempt to persuade people to spend twenty-five dollars on a hardcover book by me.
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People in Russia adapt to misery by a deep, deep humor.
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To me, a bag in a tree is like a flag of chaos, and when I remove it, I'm capturing the flag of the other side. In the end, it doesn't matter how ironic or serious or even effective on a larger scale bag snagging may be.
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With reporting, if you work hard, you can usually pull something out. But writing humor doesn't respond to working hard, necessarily. I mean, you could just sit there and look at the page all day and maybe something will come.
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I think what is important for things to be funny is if you the listener, or the reader, get a chance to supply the humor of it yourself.
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I don't want to collect Indian art, though pots and beadwork and blankets made by Indians remain the most beautiful art objects in the American West, in my opinion.
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Leading economists have shown that by shrinking Texas, we can actually create more income for Texas in the long run.
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There's an idea of the Plains as the middle of nowhere, something to be contemptuous of. But it's really a heroic place.
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I'm one of those people who happen to like trees. I don't know why - I just do. As a kid, I loved to climb them. The distant, upper branches, especially, were celestial and alluring.
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Everything in Russia is made of cement - phone booths, fence posts and light bulbs.
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I would hate to see the idea of freedom disappear, and I wonder if maybe it will.
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When I needed to think or was really upset, generally I climbed a tree.
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Russians don't complain, usually.
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A book tour is not a good opportunity to let your mind wander. You have to pay attention, remember salespeople's and interviewers' names, succinctly summarize your book in a 'selling' way, and so on.
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Russia has always had a global history. Global history is a bummer. You suffer invasions of all different kinds. And Russia was not defended against them.