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Do you know, Ivan Bunin recalls Anton Chekhov saying to him in 1899, near the end of his too-short life, for how many years I shall be read? Seven. Why seven? Bunin asked. Well, Chekhov answered, seven and a half then.

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
Wells
Seven
Well
Short
Many
Asked
Anton
Years
Saying
Ivan
Life
Shall
Chekhov
Half
Recalls
Read
Answered
Ends
Near

More quotes by Anton Chekhov

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It is a bad thing if a writer tackles a subject he does not understand.
Anton Chekhov
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When one sees one of the romantic creatures before him he imagines he is looking at some holy being, so wonderful that its one breath could dissolve him in a sea of a thousand charms and delights but if one looks into the soul -- it's nothing but a common crocodile.
Anton Chekhov
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It always seems to the brothers and the father that their brother or son didn't marry the right person.
Anton Chekhov
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It is the writer's business not to accuse and not to prosecute, but to champion the guilty, once they are condemned and suffer punishment.
Anton Chekhov
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I was so drunk the whole time that I took bottles for girls and girls for bottles.
Anton Chekhov
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It's immoral to steal, but you can take things.
Anton Chekhov
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A sweet lie is more gracious for us than a virulent but real truth.
Anton Chekhov
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In my opinion it is harmful to place important things in the hands of philanthropy, which in Russia is marked by a chance character. Nor should important matters depend on leftovers, which are never there. I would prefer that the government treasury take care of it.
Anton Chekhov
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Art, especially the stage, is an area where it is impossible to walk without stumbling. There are in store for you many unsuccessful days and whole unsuccessful seasons: there will be great misunderstandings and deep disappointments… you must be prepared for all this, expect it and nevertheless, stubbornly, fanatically follow your own way.
Anton Chekhov
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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.
Anton Chekhov
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Man is what he believes.
Anton Chekhov
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[Ognev] recalled endless, heated, purely Russian arguments, when the wranglers, spraying spittle and banging their fists on the table, fail to understand yet interrupt one another, themselves not even noticing it, contradict themselves with every phrase, change the subject, then, having argued for two or three hours, begin to laugh.
Anton Chekhov
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Everything on earth is beautiful, everything -- except what we ourselves think and do when we forget the higher purposes of life and our own human dignity.
Anton Chekhov
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Your talent sets you apart: if you were a toad or a tarantula, even then, people would respect you, for to talent all things are forgiven.
Anton Chekhov
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A writer is not a confectioner, a cosmetic dealer, or an entertainer.
Anton Chekhov
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That can not possibly be, because it could never possibly be.
Anton Chekhov
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People understand God as the expression of the most lofty morality. Maybe He needs only perfect people.
Anton Chekhov
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To describe drunkenness for the colorful vocabulary is rather cynical. There is nothing easier than to capitalize on drunkards.
Anton Chekhov
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A tree is beautiful, but what's more, it has a right to life like water, the sun and the stars, it is essential. Life on earth is inconceivable without trees.
Anton Chekhov
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My love is like a stone tied round my neck it's dragging me down to the bottom but I love my stone. I can't live without it.
Anton Chekhov