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Be sure not to discuss your hero's state of mind. Make it clear from his actions.

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
Mind
Discuss
Make
Actions
Hero
Sure
Clear
State
Action
States

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One can prove or refute anything at all with words. Soon people will perfect language technology to such an extent that they'll be proving with mathematical precision that twice two is seven.
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I was so drunk the whole time that I took bottles for girls and girls for bottles.
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You've only got to begin to do anything to find out how few honest, honourable people there are. Sometimes, when I can't sleep, I think: Oh Lord, you've given us huge forests, infinite fields, and endless horizons, and we, living here, ought really to be giants.
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Everything should be first-rate in a person, his face, clothes, soul and thoughts.
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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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In nature a repulsive caterpillar turns into a lovely butterfly. But with human beings it is the other way round: a lovely butterfly turns into a repulsive caterpillar.
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I swear fearfully at the conventions of the stage.
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Write only of what is important and eternal.
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And it is the way with us that you may express disapproval of the sun or the moon, or anything you like, but God preserve you from touching the Liberals! Heaven forbid!
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The more cultured a man, the less fortunate he is.
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Write, write, write-till your fingers break.
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Every person lives his real, most interesting life under the cover of secrecy.
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Let the things that happen on the stage be just as complex and yet just as simple as they are in life. For instance, people are having a meal, just having a meal, but at the same time their happiness is being created, or their lives are being smashed up.
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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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It's not a matter of old or new forms a person writes without thinking about any forms, he writes because it flows freely from his soul.
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From here, far away, people seem very good, and that is natural, for in going away into the country we are not hiding from people but from our vanity, which in town among people is unjust and active beyond measure.
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It's easier to ask for money from the poor than from the wealthy.
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Eyes - the head's chief of police. They watch and make mental notes.
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He who doesn't know how to be a servant should never be allowed to be a master the interests of public life are alien to anyone who is unable to enjoy others' successes, and such a person should never be entrusted with public affairs.
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