Inspirational Quotations by Anton Chekhov (Russian Short Story Writer)

Anton Chekhov (1860–1904) was Russia’s greatest playwright. He is also one of the inventors of the modern short story.

Born in Tagnarog, Russia, into a family of farmers, Chekhov studied medicine and became a doctor. At the same time, he supported his family as a freelance journalist and writer of comic sketches. He considered himself a doctor above all and a writer in pastime; he declared, “Medicine is my lawful wife, and literature is my mistress. When I get fed up with one, I spend the night with the other. Though it is irregular, it is less boring this way, and besides, neither of them loses anything through my infidelity.”

Chekhov’s first play, The Seagull, opened unsuccessfully in 1885. It got awful reviews, and he walked out on it at intermission and was determined never to compose another play. However, two years later, when it was produced a second time by the Moscow Art Theater and directed by Constantin Stanislavsky, it received rave reviews. This triumph inspired Chekhov to write the plays The Three Sisters (1901), The Cherry Orchard (1904), and Uncle Vanya (1896)—all these are now considered masterpiece dramas.

Chekhov also helped pioneer the modern short story form. He wrote over 600 stories before his death at age 44. He was one of the first short-story writers to explore characters instead of events. His stories lacked much of a plot. They did not have big emotional climaxes, and typically concluded with a revelation of an intriguing feature of his characters’ lives.

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