Critics are like horse-flies which hinder the horses in their ploughing of the soil. The muscles of the horse are as taut as fiddle-strings, and suddenly a horse-fly alights on its croup, buzzing and stinging. The horse's skin quivers, it waves its tail. What is the fly buzzing about It probably doesn't know itself. It simply has a restless nature and wants to make itself felt 'I'm alive, too, you know' it seems to say. 'Look, I know how to buzz, there's nothing I can't buzz about' I've been reading reviews of my stories for twenty-five years, and can't remember a single useful point in any of them, or the slightest good advice. The only reviewer who ever made an impression on me was Skabichevsky, who prophesied that I would die drunk in the bottom of a ditch.
More Quotes from Anton Pavlovich Chekhov:
It is time for writers to admit that nothing in this world makes sense. Only fools and charlatans think they know and understand everything. The stupider they are, the wider they conceive their horizons to be. And if an artist decides to declare that he understands nothing of what he sees this in itself constitutes a considerable clarity in the realm of thought, and a great step forward.Anton Pavlovich Chekhov
I think descriptions of nature should be very short and always be a propos. Commonplaces like 'The setting sun, sinking into the waves of the darkening sea, cast its purple gold rays, etc,' 'Swallows, flitting over the surface of the water, twittered gail.
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov
A litterateur is not a confectioner, not a dealer in cosmetics, not an entertainer.... He is just like an ordinary reporter. What would you say if a newspaper reporter, because of his fastidiousness or from a wish to give pleasure to his readers, were to describe only honest mayors, high-minded ladies, and virtuous railroad contractors.
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov
He was a rationalist, but he had to confess that he liked the ringing of church bells.
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov
... only he is an emancipated thinker who is not afraid to write foolish things.
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov
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Based on Topics: Advices Quotes, Criticism Quotes, Horse QuotesBased on Keywords: about, alights, buzzing, fiddle-strings, prophesied, quivers, reviewer, stinging, taut
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