If in the first act you have hung a pistol on the wall, then in the following one it should be fired. Otherwise don't put it there.
Interpretation
Chekhov emphasizes that every element introduced in a narrative should serve a purpose, especially in storytelling.
This quote by Anton Chekhov illustrates the principle of narrative economy, suggesting that any significant element introduced in a story should play a role later on. If something is included in the beginning, it is expected to contribute meaningfully to the plot or theme later, reinforcing the idea that every detail in storytelling should be intentional and relevant.
In practice
During a writing workshop, I mentioned Chekhov's principle to emphasize the importance of concise storytelling.
There are still many more days of failure ahead, whole seasons of failure, things will go terribly wrong, you will have huge disappointments , but you have to prepare for that, you have to expect it and be resolute and follow your own path.
Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.
To a chemist, nothing on earth is unclean. A writer must be as objective as a chemist; he must abandon the subjective line; he must know that dungheaps play a very respectable part in a landscape, and that evil passions are as inherent in life as good ones.
When you want to touch the reader's heart, try to be colder. It gives their grief as it were, a background, against which it stands out in greater relief.
Why are we worn out? Why do we, who start out so passionate, brave, noble, believing, become totally bankrupt by the age of thirty or thirty-five? Why is it that one is extinguished by consumption, another puts a bullet in his head, a third seeks oblivion in vodka, cards, a fourth, in order to stifle fear and anguish, cynically tramples underfoot the portrait of his pure, beautiful youth? Why is it that, once fallen, we do not try to rise, and, having lost one thing, we do not seek another? Why?
Money, like vodka, turns a person into an eccentric.
The true test of the American ideal is whether we're able to recognize our failings and then rise together to meet the challenges of our time. Whether we allow ourselves to be shaped by events and history, or whether we act to shape them. Whether chance of birth or circumstance decides life's big winners and losers, or whether we build a community where, at the very least, everyone has a chance to work hard, get ahead, and reach their dreams.
Public opinion is always more tyrannical towards those who obviously fear it than towards those who feel indifferent to it.
We must strive to become good ancestors.
You see, when you're middle class, you have to live with the fact that history will ignore you. You have to live with the fact that history can never champion your causes and that history will never feel sorry for you. It is the price that is paid for day-to-day comfort and silence. And because of this price, all happinesses are sterile; all sadnesses go unpitied.
Best of an island is once you get there - you can't go any farther...you've come to the end of things.
It is our policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.