The task of a writer is not to solve the problem but to state the problem correctly.

If in the first act you have hung a pistol on the wall, then in the following one it should be fired. Otherwise don't put it there.

The aim of fiction is absolute and honest truth.

Love is a great thing. It is not by chance that in all times and practically among all cultured peoples love in the general senseand the love of a man for his wife are both called love. If love is often cruel or destructive, the reasons lie not in love itself, but in the inequality between people.

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.

In short stories it is better to say not enough than to say too much, because, because--I don't know why.

I have the feeling that I've seen everything, but failed to notice the elephants.