Lying is the same as alcoholism. Liars prevaricate even on their deathbeds.

I'm the seagull. No, that's not it. I'm an actress. That's it.

If you want to work on your art, work on your life.

I agree that one can't dispense with the reins and the whip altogether, for knaves find their way even into literature, but no thinking will discover a better police for literature than the critics and the author's own conscience.

When one longs for a drink, it seems as though one could drink a whole ocean-that is faith; but when one begins to drink, one can only drink altogether two glasses-that is science.

A writer is not a confectioner, a cosmetic dealer, or an entertainer.

You don't understand, you fool' says Yegor, looking dreamily up at the sky. 'You've never understood what kind of person I am, nor will you in a million years... You just think I'm a mad person who has thrown his life away... Once the free spirit has taken hold of a man, there's no way of getting it out of him.