If literature has a social function, it is, perhaps, to show man his optimal parameters, his spiritual maximum. On that score, the metaphysical man of Dostoyevsky’s novels is of greater value than [Mr. Kundera’s] wounded rationalist, however modern and however common.
- Joseph Brodsky, 1985
The ancient Greeks had Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, the Arabs have the Koran, we have the novels of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky.
It is impossible to find another path to the pithy understanding of moral-philosophic problems than the one that passes through the Russian classics.
- Yury Davydov, 1982
Rather than regard Tolstoy and Dostoevsky as polar opposites, Davydov stresses their common Russian morality, using 'Russian' as a codeword for 'Christian'.
- Bernice Glatzer Rosenthal,1994
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