A litterateur is not a confectioner, not a dealer in cosmetics, not an entertainer. . . . He is just like an ordinary reporter. What would you say if a newspaper reporter, because of his fastidiousness or from a wish to give pleasure to his readers, were to describe only honest mayors, high-minded ladies, and virtuous railroad contractors.
Anton ChekhovOh, I have now a mania for shortness. Whatever I read - my own or other people's works - it all seems to me not short enough.
Anton ChekhovIn descriptions of nature one must seize on small details, grouping them so that when the reader closes his eyes he gets a picture.
Anton ChekhovWhat's the use of talking? You can see for yourself that this is a barbarous country; the people have no morals; and the boredom!
Anton ChekhovTo describe drunkenness for the colorful vocabulary is rather cynical. There is nothing easier than to capitalize on drunkards.
Anton ChekhovThe leaves did not stir on the trees, grasshoppers chirruped, and the monotonous hollow sound of the sea rising up from below, spoke of the peace, of the eternal sleep awaiting us. So it must have sounded when there was no Yalta, no Oreanda here; so it sounds now, and it will sound as indifferently and monotonously when we are all no more. And in this constancy, in this complete indifference to the life and death of each of us, there lies hid, perhaps, a pledge of our eternal salvation, of the unceasing movement of life upon earth, of unceasing progress towards perfection.
Anton Chekhov