On How I Learned to Write

“Comrades! In every city where I managed to speak with you, many of you asked me—out loud and in notes—how I learned to write. You asked me by letters from all corners of the USSR: rab- and selkorrespondents, war correspondents, and even young people just starting their literary work. Many suggested that I ‘write a book about how one should compose fictional stories,’ ‘develop a theory of literature,’ ‘publish a literature textbook.’ Such a textbook I cannot make—I won’t be able to do it, and besides, there already are such textbooks—though not very good ones—but still useful…”