Sunday, October 07, 2012

Stamp of a Writer: Maxim Gorky

"Why, (reading books) is the only pleasure I have. While I'm reading it is as if I were living in another city, and when I have come to the end, as if I were falling from the belfry."

"The most beautiful words in the English language are 'not guilty'."

"Many contemporary authors drink more than they write."

"I caught a chill while I was tipsy. I had typhoid fever. When I began to get well—it was torture ! I lay quite alone all day and all night, and it seemed to me as if I were dumb and blind, thrown into a pit like a pup. Thanks to the doctor, he gave me books all the time, or else I'd have died of depression... I kept reading poetry... I read, and it was as sweet as if I were swallowing milk. There is, brother, such poetry, that when you read it, it's like your sweetheart kissing you. And sometimes a verse will give you such a blow on the heart: you blaze up as if it had struck a spark."
— From Three of Them

In the maxim of the past you cannot go anywhere.

The good qualities in our soul are most successfully and forcefully awakened by the power of art. Just as science is the intellect of the world, art is its soul.”
— From Untimely Thoughts: Essays on Revolution, Culture, and the Bolsheviks, 1917-1918

"You must write for children in the same way as you do for adults, only better."

"Keep reading books, but remember that a book’s only a book, and you should learn to think for yourself."

Note: For the 19 previous Celebrity Stamps, click here.

Leo Tolstoy and Maxmim Gorky
















Anton Chekhov with Maxim Gorky





6 comments:

  1. Gorky wrote some amazing short stories about the very poor in Russia. He is not much read now because of his association with Stalin. I have dine several posts on his work. Nice to see all the quotes

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    1. Mel, he certainly did and I have read a few of his short stories. I recall reading your numerous posts on Maxim Gorky on your fine blog. His quotes on this page are commonplace and the only one I dug out from the archives is the one from THREE OF THEM.

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  2. A lovely post, Prashant. Thanks for reminding me of him.

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    1. Thank you, Patti. Some of these Russian authors write so well in translations, I can only imagine how good their original in Russian must be.

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  3. I've not read Gorky but did Chekov when I was in the Advanced Level class. Cherry Orchard was not good then but I did enjoy it later on when I re-read the book.

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    1. Mystica, I've read more Chekhov than Gorky though I haven't read CHERRY ORCHARD by Chekhov. Thanks for mentioning it.

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