He has wonderful hands--not beautiful, but knotted with swollen
veins, and yet full of a singular expressiveness and the power of
creativeness. Probably Leonardo da Vinci had hands like that. With such
hands one can do anything. Sometimes, when talking, he will move his
fingers, gradually close them into a fist, and then, suddenly opening
them, utter a good, full-weight word. He is like a god, not a Sabaoth
or Olympian, but the kind of Russian god who "sits on a maple throne
under a golden lime tree," not very majestic, but perhaps more cunning
than all the other gods.