FROM THE AUTHOR:
I write a lot, but briefly.
It just so happened: in my tender youth, as an avid reader, I was captivated by the charm of laconism. The shorter, the better! I have nothing against Proust, it's just not my thing. What appeals to me are Pushkin's "Scene from Faust," "Princess Mary," Chekhov's "Enemies," Averchenko and Doroshevich, Babel and Zoshchenko, Schwartz, the Oberiuts, Lec...
When I started scribbling on paper, I scribbled quite a bit in my youth, but I always discovered that where a normal writer's exposition begins, my plot ends... By the time I was forty, I realized I'd never write a novel. I developed a slight insecurity about my modest literary scope, but then I stopped: it is what it is.
Since my youth, my best moments at my desk have been when I'm crossing out what I've written. When I manage to remain silent, I'm a true genius.
This book contains, sometimes in new editions, various short texts from forty years of scribbling paper and typing. It won't take up much of your time.