A polymath, butterfly lover, chess expert, whose writing in Russian and English affected international letters:
“I don’t wish touch hearts and I don’t even want to affect minds very much what I want to produce is really that little sob in the spin of the artist reader.”
“I am an American writer, born in Russia and educated in
England where I studied French literature, before spending
fifteen years in Germany. I came to America in 1940 and decided
to become an American citizen, and make America my home. It so
happened that I was immediately exposed to the very best in
America, to its rich intellectual life and to its easygoing,
good-natured atmosphere. I immersed myself in its great
libraries and its Grand Canyon. I worked in the laboratories of
its zoological museums. I acquired more friends than I ever had
in Europe, My books– old books and new ones– found some
admirable readers. I became as stout as Cortez– mainly because
I quit smoking and started to munch molasses candy instead,
with the result that my weight went up from my usual 140 to a
monumental and cheerful 200. In consequence, I am one-third
American– good American flesh keeping me warm and safe.”
Read on in his 1964 Playboy interview here:
A Life of Wonder 
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