People's destinies are so different. Some people drag along, unnoticed and boring—they're all alike, and they're all unhappy. Then there are others, like for instance you—you're one in a million. You're happy—

Man is what he believes.

My mistress has come home; at last I've seen her. Now I'm ready to die.

In displaying the psychology of your characters, minute particulars are essential. God save us from vague generalizations!

Watching a woman make Russian pancakes, you might think that she was calling on the spirits or extracting from the batter the philosopher's stone.

A good upbringing means not that you won't spill sauce on the tablecloth, but that you won't notice it when someone else does.

When you describe the miserable and unfortunate, and want to make the reader feel pity, try to be somewhat colder - that seems to give a kind of background to another's grief, against which it stands out more clearly. Whereas in your story the characters cry and you sigh. Yes, be more cold. ... The more objective you are, the stronger will be the impression you make.