"To live one must have something to hang on to... In the provinces only the body works, not the spirit."

- Chekhov's Notebooks about Three Sisters

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"We also received the following instruction from abroad. In the fourth act of Three Sisters, the degenerate Andrey, talking to Ferapont as no one else was willing to talk to him, describes what a wife is from the point of view of a provincial degenerate card. It was a marvelous monologue about two pages long. Suddenly we received a note saying that the whole of the monologue was to be crossed out and replaced with just the phrase 'A wife is a wife!' This short phrase reflects on it, covers everything that was said in the long, two page monologue." - Stanislavsky about Chekhov and Three Sisters

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"The wife implores the husband: 'Don't get fat.'"

- Chekhov's Notebooks about Three Sisters