How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Nikolai Nikolaevich was bringing Voskoboinikov the proofs of his little book on the land question, which, in view of increased pressure from the censorship, the publisher had asked him to revise. (1.4.6)
Nikolai Nikolaevich isn't one to shy away from controversy. Unfortunately, the poor guy needs to make some compromises for government censors if he ever plans on getting his book published. Censorship was the norm in Russia both before and after the Russian Revolution. Pasternak himself had to publish Doctor Zhivago in Italy because the Soviets wouldn't let him publish it in his own country.
Quote #2
Yura thought well and wrote very well. Still in his high school years he dreamed of prose, of a book of biographies, in which he could place, in the form of hidden explosive clusters, the most astounding things of all he had managed to see and ponder. (3.2.7)
From his high school years onward, Yuri Zhivago has dreams of writing important books based on all of the amazing things he's seen and the thoughts he's had. Like many young people, Zhivago thinks that his ideas are all completely original and extremely meaningful. And this is a feeling that he continues to hold on to into adulthood, in a way that the book suggests we should admire.
Quote #3
In the books [Nikolai] published there in Russian and in translation, he developed his long-standing notion of history as a second universe, erected by mankind in response to the phenomenon of death with the aid of the phenomena of time and memory. (3.2.10)
In the eyes of Nikolai, history is something that humanity has invented in order to comfort itself against the fact that all things must eventually come to an end. Whether it's the end of an individual human life or of humanity in general, there will eventually be an end. History books, though, always seem to suggest that the story will go on forever.