How I Learned to Write

“Comrades! In every city where I’ve had the chance to meet and talk with you, many people asked the same question—both out loud and in notes: how did I learn to write? The same was written to me from all ends of the USSR—by рабселькоры, military correspondents, and, in general, young people who were just starting out in literature. There were also many suggestions: ‘Write a book about how to create fiction stories,’ ‘formulate a theory of literature,’ ‘publish a textbook on literature.’ But I can’t make such a textbook, and I won’t be able to; besides, such guides—though not always very successful, but still useful—already exist…”