You should never describe yourself. It would have been better had you made Pospelov fall in love with some woman, and incorporated your feelings in her.
—To a fellow writer1
If someone offers you coffee, don’t go looking for beer in it. If I present you with the ideas of the Professor, trust me and don’t look for Chekhov’s ideas in them, thank you kindly.
—To his friend and editor Aleksei Suvorin2
Anton Chekhov’s biography in 1886–1887 is captured almost completely in the writing that he was doing. Reading the stories, we are as close as we can be to being in his company.
