When one longs for a drink, it seems as though one could drink a whole — Anton Chekhov

"Listener indifference, which is reader indifference, is a trademark joke in Chekhov."

"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. Forests create climate, climate influences peoples’ character, and so on and so forth. There can be neither civilization nor happiness if forests crash down under the axe, if the climate is harsh and severe, if people are also harsh and severe.... What a terrible future!"

"An artist must pass judgment only on what he understands; his range is limited as that of any other specialist—thats what I keep repeating and insisting upon. Anyone who says that the artists field is all answers and no questions has never done any writing or had any dealings with imagery. An artist observes, selects, guesses and synthesizes."

"Of course politics is an interesting and engrossing thing. It offers no immutable laws, nearly always prevaricates, but as far as blather and sharpening the mind go, it provides inexhaustible material."

"Lermontov died at age twenty-eight and wrote more than have you and I put together. Talent is recognizable not only by quality, but also by the quantity it yields."

"There is no national science, just as there is no national multiplication table; what is national is no longer science."