Quotes from Mikhail Bulgakov

What would your good do if evil didn't exist, and what would the earth look like if all the shadows disappeared?

Once upon a time there was a lady. She had no children, and no happiness either. And at first she cried for a long time, but then she became wicked.

the hope that there she would manage to regain her happiness made her fearless

Literature has become my life.

Happiness is like good health: when you have it, you don't notice it. But as the years go by, oh, the memories, the memories of happiness past!

Who ever told you there is no such thing in the world as real, true, everlasting love? May the liar have his despicable tongue cut out!

My writing is progressing slowly, but at least it's moving forward. I'm sure that's the case. The only problem is that I'm never absolutely certain that what I've written is any good.

Once in 1919, when I was traveling at night by train, I wrote a short story. In the town where the train stopped, I took the story to the publisher of the newspaper who published the story.

This twenty-year-old boy was distinguished from childhood by strange qualities, a dreamer and an eccentric. A girl fell in love with him, and he went and sold her to a brothel.

Margarita was never short of money. She could buy whatever she liked. Her husband had plenty of interesting friends. Margarita never had to cook. Margarita knew nothing of the horrors of living in a shared flat. In short... was she happy? Not for a moment.

Azazello begged her not to worry, assuring her that he had seen not only naked women but also women with their skin flayed clean off

Annushka has already bought the sunflower oil, and has not only bought it, but has already spilled it.

What would your good be doing if there were no evil, and what would the earth look like if shadows disappeared from it? After all, shadows are cast by objects and people. There is the shadow of my sword. But there are also shadows of trees and living creatures. Would you like to denude the earth of all the trees and all the living beings in order to satisfy your fantasy of rejoicing in the naked light?

No ID, no person

But why don't you take him with you into the light? He does not deserve the light, he deserves peace

The most amazing combinations can result if you shuffle the pack enough.

Manuscripts do not burn.

Not causing trouble, not touching anything, fixing the primus.

I'll go to bed, forget myself in sleep.

One can find time for everything if one is never in a hurry.

To struggle against censorship, whatever its nature, and whatever the power under which it exists, is my duty as a writer, as are calls for freedom of the press. I am a passionate supporter of that freedom, and I consider that if any writer were to imagine that he could prove he didn't need that freedom, then he would be like a fish affirming in public that it didn't need water.

No one's fate is of any interest to you except your own.

I wouldn't like to meet you when you've got a revolver," said Margarita with a coquettish look at Azazello. She had a passion for people who did things well.

The whole horror of the situation is that he now has a human heart, not a dog's heart. And about the rottenest heart in all creation!