Quote

If you say in the first chapter that there is a rifle hanging on the wall, in the second or third chapter it absolutely must go off. If it's not going to be fired, it shouldn't be hanging there.

Anton Chekhov

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

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
Wall
Fired
Second
Chapter
Firsts
Chapters
First
Hanging
Must
Third
Writing
Thirds
Going
Shouldn
Rifle
Absolutely
Rifles

More quotes by Anton Chekhov

Image
When a woman isn't beautiful, people always say, 'You have lovely eyes, you have lovely hair.'
Anton Chekhov
Image
I'm in mourning for my life.
Anton Chekhov
Image
One had better not rush, otherwise dung comes out rather than creative work.
Anton Chekhov
Image
Three o'clock in the morning. The soft April night is looking at my windows and caressingly winking at me with its stars. I can't sleep, I am so happy.
Anton Chekhov
Image
Life is difficult for those who have the daring to first set out on an unknown road. The avant-garde always has a bad time of it.
Anton Chekhov
Image
I observed that after marriage people cease to be curious.
Anton Chekhov
Image
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.
Anton Chekhov
Image
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.
Anton Chekhov
Image
It is a bad thing if a writer tackles a subject he does not understand.
Anton Chekhov
Image
If you cry ''Forward'' you must be sure to make clear the direction in which to go. Don't you see that if you fail to do that and simply call out the word to a monk and a revolutionary, they will go in precisely opposite directions?
Anton Chekhov
Image
I can't accept our nervous age, since mankind has been nervous during every age. Whoever fears nervousness should turn into a sturgeon or smelt if a sturgeon makes a stupid mistake, it can only be one: to end up on a hook, and then in a pan in a pastry shell.
Anton Chekhov
Image
No psychologist should pretend to understand what he does not understand... Only fools and charlatans know everything and understand nothing.
Anton Chekhov
Image
A good person will feel guilty even before a dog.
Anton Chekhov
Image
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!
Anton Chekhov
Image
In descriptions of nature one must seize on small details, grouping them so that when the reader closes his eyes he gets a picture.
Anton Chekhov
Image
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...
Anton Chekhov
Image
In a century or two, or in a millennium, people will live in a new way, a happier way. We wont be there to see it - but its why we live, why we work. Its why we suffer. Were creating it. Thats the purpose of our existence. The only happiness we can know is to work toward that goal.
Anton Chekhov
Image
When men ask me how I know so much about men, they get a simple answer: everything I know about men, I learned from me.
Anton Chekhov
Image
Every person lives his real, most interesting life under the cover of secrecy.
Anton Chekhov
Image
Tsars and slaves, the intelligent and the obtuse, publicans and pharisees all have an identical legal and moral right to honor the memory of the deceased as they see fit, without regard for anyone else's opinion and without the fear of hindering one another.
Anton Chekhov