I had no difficult getting a visa for my passport. Against such a callous writer as myself, their embassies and consulates were helpless.’ [11]
[...]
“Shut up Aloysha”, said Mr. Shatov. “I want to know what he means by saying the Irish are not revolutionary. I hate the English Don’t you hate the English?”
“That is ridiculous”, said Mr Kotpov.
“It is [183] utterly impossible to hate such a large aggregation as the English. The English are a great race. You will agree, Mr Flaxy?”
“Taken as a whole,”, I said, ”it is probable that the English are the most remarkable people the world has yet seen.”
“Damn lie”, said Mr. Shatov. ”It is a shame to hear an Irishman say that. You are Anglicised … British Imperialism … [184] is the most cruel tyranny the world has every seen.” […].
“Well”, I said, ”I consider that a race is revolutionary when its social activities tend to increase man’s power over the forces of nature and to widen and comprehend the universe. Examined from this point of view it will be seen that the English are extremely revolutionary, at least until quite recently. As Mr Kotpov has stated, they led the world for a long time in culture, as well as in commerce, industry, and the science of government.” (I went to Russia, London: Jonathan Cape 1931, p.183-85.)

Soviet utopias: To me this Russian deification of the mass as the solitary material for artistic creation is atavistic drivel, the child of mediocrity, which, in its jealousy of genius, throws itself on the bosom of the mob. Neither is it anything new, but an intense form of the decadent theories current in western European capitals in the years immediately preceding the War. In art, ambitious theories are always a sign of impotence and laziness and mediocrity.’ (Ibid., p.225.)