For a country to have a great writer is like having another government. That's why no r?gime has ever loved great writers, only minor ones.
Source: Innokenty, in The First Circle, ch. 57 (1968
-- Alexander Solzhenitsyn, (Dec 11 1918-2008), Russian novelist; He is well known for his books describing forced labor camps, e.g., One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, 1962.