Anton Chekhov Quotes About Writing

Quotes about: Writing

• Don't tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.

  Anton Chekhov

  Inspirational, Writing, Moon

• My own experience is that once a story has been written, one has to cross out the beginning and the end. It is there that we authors do most of our lying.

  Anton Chekhov

  Lying, Writing, Stories

• If an intelligent, educated, and healthy man begins to complain of his lot and go down-hill, there is nothing for him to do but to go on down until he reaches the bottom--there is no hope for him. Where could my salvation come from? How can I save myself? I cannot drink, because it makes my head ache. I never could write bad poetry. I cannot pray for strength and see anything lofty in the languor of my soul. Laziness is laziness and weakness weakness. I can find no other names for them. I am lost, I am lost; there is no doubt of that.

  Anton Chekhov

  Writing, Intelligent, Men

  Anton Chekhov (2015). “The Collected Works of Anton Chekhov: Novellas, Short Stories, Plays, Letters & Diary: Three Sisters, Seagull , The Shooting Party, Uncle Vanya, Cherry Orchard, Chameleon, Tripping Tongue, On The Road, Vanka, Ward No. Six, Swedish Match, Nightmare, Bear, Reluctant Hero, Joy…”, p.131, e-artnow

• He is an emancipated thinker who is not afraid to write foolish things.

  Anton Chekhov

  Writing, Foolish, Not Afraid

  Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1964). “Letters on the short story, the drama, and other literary topics”

• If you look at anything long enough, say just that wall in front of you - it will come out of that wall.

  Anton Chekhov

  Wall, Writing, Long

• Write about this man who, drop by drop, squeezes the slave's blood out of himself until he wakes one day to find the blood of a real human being--not a slave's--coursing through his veins.

  Anton Chekhov

  Real, Writing, Men

• One usually dislikes a play while writing it, but afterward it grows on one. Let others judge and make decisions.

  Anton Chekhov

  Writing, Play, Judging

• Cross out as many adjectives and adverbs as you can. ... It is comprehensible when I write: "The man sat on the grass," because it is clear and does not detain one's attention. On the other hand, it is difficult to figure out and hard on the brain if I write: "The tall, narrow-chested man of medium height and with a red beard sat down on the green grass that had already been trampled down by the pedestrians, sat down silently, looking around timidly and fearfully." The brain can't grasp all that at once, and art must be grasped at once, instantaneously.

  Anton Chekhov

  Art, Writing, Men

• Try to be original in your play and as clever as possible; but don't be afraid to show yourself foolish; we must have freedom of thinking, and only he is an emancipated thinker who is not afraid to write foolish things.

  Anton Chekhov

  Clever, Writing, Thinking

  Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1964). “Letters on the short story, the drama, and other literary topics”

• To a chemist, nothing on earth is unclean. A writer must be as objective as a chemist; he must abandon the subjective line; he must know that dungheaps play a very respectable part in a landscape, and that evil passions are as inherent in life as good ones.

  Anton Chekhov

  Passion, Writing, Play

• The critics suppose that it is easy to write a play. They aren't aware that writing a good play is difficult and writing a bad one is twice as hard.

  Anton Chekhov

  Writing, Play, Theatre

• Write, write, write-till your fingers break.

  Anton Chekhov

  Writing, Break, Fingers

  Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, Peter Constantine (2000). “The Undiscovered Chekhov: Forty-three New Stories”, p.9, Seven Stories Press

• 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

  Writing, Simple, Men

• 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

  Writing, Eye, Details

  Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1987). “The Unknown Chekhov: Stories and Other Writings”

• I am writing a play which I probably will not finish until the end of November. I am writing it with considerable pleasure, though I sin frightfully against the conventions of the stage. It is a comedy with three female parts, six male, four acts, a landscape (view of the lake), lots of talk on literature, little action and tons of love.

  Anton Chekhov

  Love, Writing, Lakes

• This man, who for twenty-five years has been reading and writing about art, and in all that time has never understood anything about art, has for twenty-five years been hashing over other people's ideas about realism, naturalism and all that nonsense; for twenty-five years he has been reading and writing about what intelligent people already know and about what stupid people don't want to know--which means that for twenty-five years he's been taking nothing and making nothing out of it. And with it all, what conceit! What pretension!

  Anton Chekhov

  Art, Stupid, Reading

• Write only of what is important and eternal.

  Anton Chekhov

  Writing, Important, Eternal

  Anton Chekhov (2006). “The Major Plays”, p.111, Penguin

• Everyone judges plays as if they were very easy to write. They don't know that it is hard to write a good play, and twice as hardand tortuous to write a bad one.

  Anton Chekhov

  Writing, Play, Judging

  Anton Chekhov's letter to A.S. Suvorin, May 4, 1889.

• When describing nature, a writer should seize upon small details, arranging them so that the reader will see an image in his mind after he closes his eyes. For instance: you will capture the truth of a moonlit night if you'll write that a gleam like starlight shone from the pieces of a broken bottle, and then the dark, plump shadow of a dog or wolf appeared. You will bring life to nature only if you don't shrink from similes that liken its activities to those of humankind.

  Anton Chekhov

  Dog, Writing, Eye

• Is it our job to judge? The gendarme, policemen and bureaucrats have been especially prepared by fate for that job. Our job is towrite, and only to write.

  Anton Chekhov

  Jobs, Writing, Fate

  Letter to L.A. Avilova, April 27, 1899.

• A writer should not so much write as embroider on paper; the work should be painstaking, laborious.

  Anton Chekhov

  Writing, Paper, Should

  Anton Chekhov (2008). “How to Write Like Chekhov: Advice and Inspiration, Straight from His Own Letters and Work”, p.19, Da Capo Press

• 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

  Wall, Writing, Rifles

• I let myself go at the beginning and write with an easy mind, but by the time I get to the middle I begin to grow timid and to fear my story will be too long. . .That is why the beginning of my stories is always very promising and looks as though I were starting on a novel, and the middle is huddled and timid, and the end is...like fireworks.

  Anton Chekhov

  Writing, Long, Mind

• It's easier to write about Socrates than about a young woman or a cook.

  Anton Chekhov

  Writing, Literature, Easier

  Letter to A. S. Suvorin, January 2, 1894.

• Anyone who says the artist's field is all answers and no questions has never done any writing or had any dealings with imageryYou are confusing two concepts: answering the questions and formulating them correctly. Only the latter is required of an author.

  Anton Chekhov

  Writing, Artist, Two

  "Comfort reading: Gooseberries by Anton Chekhov" by Chris Power, www.theguardian.com. December 11, 2003.

Page 1 of 2

← Prev

1

2

Next →

• facebook
• twitter
• googleplus
• email
• linkedin

• facebook
• twitter
• googleplus
• email
• linkedin