Show. Don’t tell.
Published by marco on
“Don’t tell me the moon is shining. Show me the glint of light on broken glass.[1]”
—Anton Chekhov
From Quote Origin: Don’t Tell Me the Moon Is Shining; Show Me the Glint of Light on Broken Glass (Quote Investigator)
“Антон ЧеховIn May, 1886, Chekhov wrote to his brother Alexander, who had literary ambitions: “In descriptions of Nature one must seize on small details, grouping them so that when the reader closes his eyes he gets a picture. For instance, you’ll have a moonlit night if you write that on the mill dam a piece of glass from a broken bottle glittered like a bright little star, and that the black shadow of a dog or a wolf rolled past like a ball.””
[1] ↩
Found the original on Мастер-класс по текстам от Чехова by turizmufa (TenChat),
“Не говори мне, что светит луна; покажи мне отблеск света на битом стекле.”
—Антон Чехов