Boris

Boris Akunin at the PEN Literary Cafe (Photo credit: englishpen)

One thing Boris Akunin, a man who considers his words, said during our LitFest session popped into my head this morning. I had asked him why on earth a man who had sold 25 million books (In Russian alone) and was living in France would want to return to Russia and take a leading role in the popular movement against Vladimir Putin's vice-like grip on Russian politics.

That took the conversation down the line of repression and civil movements, with a dash of bloggery thrown in (Akunin used his blog to draw a crowd of 10,000-odd people to perform an act of quiet civil rights assertion).

"A writer is a thermometer. If you don't like the temperature, don't break the thermometer. It won't change the temperature, just your ability to measure it."

I liked that.