Isaac Babel

"No iron can stab the heart with such force as a period put just at the right place."

"Just forget for a minute that you have spectacles on your nose and autumn in your heart. Stop being tough at your desk and stammering with timidity in the presence of people. Imagine for one second that you raise hell in public and stammer on paper. You’re a tiger, a lion, a cat. You spend a night with a Russian woman and leave her satisfied. You’re twenty five. If rings had been fastened to the earth and sky, you’d have seized them and pulled the sky down to earth"

"A well-thought-out story doesn’t need to resemble real life. Life itself tries with all its might to resemble a well-crafted story."

"No iron can pierce the human heart as chillingly as a full stop placed at the right time."