I am looking for a Russian translation in the Cyrillic alphabet of this Ayn Rand quote. I don't trust the regular translators to be correct on grammar, punctuation, etc. I would really appreciate it. Thank you so much.

“Achieving life is not the equivalent of avoiding death.”

I recently got the rosetta stone program for Russian, and was quite excited to use it. Me and my fans think Russia is awesome, and wanted to learn some Russian and take a trip there. Unfortunately, it seems that you have to be quite fluent in the Cyrillic alphabet to use the program. I was wondering if I am right in this, and if so, if anyone can give me any pointers in learning the cyrillic alphabet/Russian in general.
спасибо! (Thank you)

Does anyone have any tips on how to learn Russian without a teacher/class?

Ive done the following:
~Learned a few words
~Downloaded Russian For Dummies
~Learned the Cyrillic Alphabet

Cheers!
Please DO NOT advertize the books you are selling <.<

I would love to learn but sadly there is nowhere in my area that teaches Russian. I looked at Rosetta Stone but I'm not sure if I would like that format of learning very much. I want to completely understand what I am saying and I'd like to actually be able to learn the Cyrillic alphabet too. Any suggestions?

I am trying to learn Russian.
I know all of the Cyrillic alphabet and the sounds made by them.
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I simply need a good coursebook suggestion, or an excellent method for learning such a difficult language.
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Thank You.