I do a very good impersonation of an American - I went to high school here - but I've spent most of my life in Russia.

I think that when you emigrate, when everything you took for granted disappears, it's a kind of loss of innocence. When you're a kid, the world as you know it is just there. Suddenly, you emigrate and that's no longer the case. It's a break in reality that parachutes you into adulthood.

The most difficult and, in some ways, the most rewarding thing I've ever been through was emigrating as a teenager.

Masha Gessen Quotes