Grossman has a simplicity and clarity to his writing and I like his definition of perfection, not as an absence of flaws, but as an expression of the essential. I am also intrigued by the notion that it is ‘always democratic … always generally accessible’.

‘Perfection is always simple, and it is always natural.  Perfection is the deepest understanding and fullest expression of what is essential.  Perfection is the shortest path to a goal, the simplest proof, the clearest expression.  Perfection is always democratic; it is always generally accessible.’

Source: Vasily Grossman, An Armenian Sketchbook, trans. Robert and Elizabeth Chandler, New York: New York Review Books, 2013, p. 82 – reviewed here.

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