I let myself go at the beginning and write with an easy mind, but by the time I get to the middle I begin to grow timid and to fear my story will be too long. . .That is why the beginning of my stories is always very promising and looks as though I were starting on a novel, and the middle is huddled and timid, and the end is...like fireworks.

In all my life I never met anyone so frivolous as you two, so crazy and unbusinesslike. I tell you in plain Russian your property is going to be sold and you don't seem to understand what I say.

There is no national science, just as there is no national multiplication table; what is national is no longer science.

A sweet lie is more gracious for us than a virulent but real truth.

To advise is not to compel.

Life is given only once, and one wants to live it boldly, with full conscious and beauty.

If you ever have need of my life, come and take it.