

“... an artist should paint from the heart, and not always what people expect. Predictability often leads to the dullest work, in my opinion, and we have been bored stiff long enough I think.”
― Brushstrokes of a Gadfly
― Brushstrokes of a Gadfly

“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."
(Letter to Alexander Chekhov, May 10, 1886)”
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(Letter to Alexander Chekhov, May 10, 1886)”
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“Medicine is my lawful wife, and literature is my mistress. When I get fed up with one, I spend the night with the other”
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“Every story has already been told. Once you've read Anna Karenina, Bleak House, The Sound and the Fury, To Kill a Mockingbird and A Wrinkle in Time, you understand that there is really no reason to ever write another novel. Except that each writer brings to the table, if she will let herself, something that no one else in the history of time has ever had."
[Commencement Speech; Mount Holyoke College, May 23, 1999]”
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[Commencement Speech; Mount Holyoke College, May 23, 1999]”
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Mikela’s 2024 Year in Books
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