Doctor Zhivago Literature and Writing Quotes

How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote #4

When his foster mother Anna passes away, Yuri is grateful for the fact that he'll get a break from family and university responsibilities so he can work on his poetry writing. That said, he also plans on dedicating much of this writing to the memory of his foster mother, so it's not totally self-interested.

Quote #5

Yuri Andreevich learned from a letter that Gordon and Dudorov had released his book without his permission, that it had been praised and a great literary future was prophesied for him, and that it was very interesting and alarming in Moscow now. (4.14.20)

While he's working as a doctor at the front in World War I, Zhivago finds out through the grapevine that his buddies back in Moscow have published some of his writings without his permission. The published work has become really popular and made Zhivago something of a literary star.

Quote #6

The fact that it [the revolution] was so fearlessly carried out has something nationally intimate, long familiar about it. Something of Pushkin's unconditional luminosity, of Tolstoy's unswerving faithfulness to facts. (6.8.27)

You can tell how significant literature has been in Zhivago's life by the way he constantly uses it to make sense of what's happening in the world around him. Even when he thinks of the Russian Revolution, he can't help but think of it in terms of famous authors like Tolstoy or Pushkin. In his mind, these are the people who've truly written the history of Russia. The people doing the fighting are just playing out what these great thinkers have already figured out.