"russian people have long looked at mushrooms as being mystical. There is a very old belief that says that once a mushroom comes under the gaze of a human eye, it ceases to grow. Diaka wouldn't let me carry the basket when we went hunting, because if the mushrooms saw you carrying a basket, they'd know what you intended and would hide in the grass and not show their faces until you had passed. And we never carried a knife. Imagine what you would look like to a mushroom, creeping through the forest with a basket and a terrible knife. Very scary."

"American women, I think, plan much more than Russian women. At least the Russian women who grew up in the seventies and eighties, before the breakup of the Soviet Union. American women have much more to plan for. Not only must they try to find a life partner who's a doctor or lawyer or businessman, but he must be good looking, too.

"In Russia, everyone was more or less on the same level. There was very little difference between being rich and poor. So if you found someone you liked, or loved, the next question was only when the marriage would be. Not whether he could make a good life for you or was a suitable match for you. There was no need for elaborate planning. Today, of course, it is different, and Russian women know how to look for a good businessman to marry the same as Americans do. But I never had such notions in my head."