Everything's decided in advance. You save up to buy a TV set, after that it's a washing machine, then a refrigerator. You've got a twenty-year plan like the government.
Don't you understand that we live in Moscow? And Moscow's one big lottery, you can hit the jackpot.
Not everything works out right away, And Moscow was built not in one day.
It never took your word for it, It only believed in love.
Whether covered with soft snow, Or glistening in autumn glow,
It will warm a lonely soul and nurture a tree in a grove...
Moscow is full of diplomats, artists, actors and poets. Practically they're all men. And we're women.
Men prefer women in the intellectual professions. For example, a doctor. Her hands are clean, she wears a white blouse. Or a music teacher. It's very romantic, and earns a good living. Of course, interior decorating is a chic profession. The only trouble is that it's hard to fake.
Take a chance for once in your life.
If God really created us all, he should be generous and give us at least a thimbleful of hope.
Washington says we're a bust, Treats us just like old dust. But in space we're the first. With green envy they can burst.
- In life, there's such a thing as luck, you know. That's why I buy a lottery ticket every week.
- You win yet?
- Sure I did. I won a ruble twice.
Do you know how many people are suffering from loneliness? Look at the numbers and you can see how alarming it is! In Moscow alone, it's alarming! Loneliness is the danger facing us. The birthrate goes down, alcoholism's up!
You know as well as I do that in Moscow there're five single women for every forty-year-old bachelor.
Where are the men nowadays? They're getting fat and lazy. You go to the theatre or museum and what do you see? Only women. The men are watching television or drinking with their friends. Once they reach forty, they vegetate.
A man can start over again if he really wants to.
I was told how to meet a single man. You go to a cemetery. You're bound to meet an intellectual who's a recent widower. You let him look at you, and the next thing you know...A friend of mine actually married an architect that way.
- You mean single women have a special look about them?
- Their look is kind of searching. The same look police usually have, an executive has it, and a single woman has it too.
To marry a person after only a two-day acquaintance is a very thoughtless act. It's best to wait about a week.
And now here I am, alone with no kids, with no wife, not even anyone I can really call a friend. How many times I've imagined what it would be like meeting you. All the words I've so carefully prepared. Now you're here and I don't know what to say. For many years I didn't stop loving you. But then I became hateful and bitter. I wanted you to know about my success, to make you see how wrong you were. But now I think that it was all to the good. I wouldn't have become a success if you had stayed.
Life begins at 40. It may sound trite, but it's true.
Ever hear of the Roman emperor Diocletian? At the very height of his empire, he just gave away the crown and settled down somewhere in the country. And when he was asked to take over again, he said: "Once you've seen the cabbages that I've grown, you'll stop asking me."
I prefer doing the things I like doing. I don't care a damn about prestige or stupid fashion. I love the kind of work I do because I know that I'm needed. I love my friends, because we never get tired of each other, of our talks. I love your mother because... because I love her.
Don't cry. You know what Moscow thinks of tears. We shouldn't be sitting around, we should do something!