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If you cry 'forward', you must without fail make plain in what direction to go.

Anton Chekhov

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Anton Chekhov
Age: 44 †
Born: 1860
Born: January 1
Died: 1904
Died: January 1
Author
Dramaturge
Journalist
Novelist
Physician
Playwright
Prosaist
Satirist
Writer
Tahanroh
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov
Antón Pávlovič Čéhov
Antón Pávlovich Chékhov
Chekhov
Must
Make
Plain
Direction
Fail
Cry
Forward
Failing
Without

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In displaying the psychology of your characters, minute particulars are essential. God save us from vague generalizations! Be sure not to discuss your hero's state of mind. Make it clear from his actions. Nor is it necessary to portray many main characters. Let two people be the center of gravity in your story: he and she.
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The more cultured a man, the less fortunate he is.
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But if you had asked him what his work was, he would look candidly and openly at you with his large bright eyes through his gold pincenez, and would answer in a soft, velvety, lisping baritone: My work is literature.
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I observed that after marriage people cease to be curious.
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Everything should be first-rate in a person, his face, clothes, soul and thoughts.
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I confess I seldom commune with my conscience when I write.
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All saints have past and all sinners have a future.
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There are no small number of people in this world who, solitary by nature, always try to go back into their shell like a hermit crab or a snail.
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Calculating selfishness is the annihilation of self.
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Narrative prose is a legal wife, while drama is a posturing, boisterous, cheeky and wearisome mistress.
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That can not possibly be, because it could never possibly be.
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The illusion which exalts us is dearer to us than ten thousand truths.
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A sweet lie is more gracious for us than a virulent but real truth.
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Sports are positively essential. It is healthy to engage in sports, they are beautiful and liberal, liberal in the sense that nothing serves quite as well to integrate social classes, etc., than street or public games.
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The bourgeoisie is very fond of so-called practical types and novels with happy endings, since they soothe it with the idea that one can both accumulate capital and preserve innocence, be a beast and at the same time be happy...
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What a fine weather today! Can’t choose whether to drink tea or to hang myself.
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Brevity - the sister of talent.
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This life of ours...human life is like a flower gloriously blooming in a meadow: along comes a goat, eats it up---no more flower.
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Write, write, write-till your fingers break.
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Fine. Since the tea is not forthcoming, let's have a philosophical conversation.
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