Mikhail Bulgakov Quotes

No documents, no person.

Foreign visitors . . . how impressed you all are with foreign visitors! But they come in many different varieties.

Don't be afraid, Queen … don't be afraid, Queen, the blood has long since gone into the earth. And where it was spilled, grapevines are already growing.

Only if some microorganism doesn't attack these tender hothouse plants and eat away at their roots, only if they don't rot! And that can happen with pineapples! Oh, yes, indeed it can!

Quotations are sourced from published English translations of the original work. The translations are abbreviated as:

For some reason, cats are usually addressed familiarly, though no cat has ever drunk bruderschaft with anyone.

They have read your novel . . . and they said only one thing, that, unfortunately, it is not finished. So I wanted to show you your hero. He has been sitting here for about two thousand years, sleeping, but, when the moon is full, he is tormented, as you see, by insomnia. And it torments not only him, but his faithful guardian, the dog. If it is true that cowardice is the most grave vice, then the dog, at least, is not guilty of it. The only thing that brave creature ever feared was thunderstorms. But what can be done, the one who loves must share the fate of the one who is loved.

'You're not Dostoevsky,' said the citizeness, who was getting muddled by Koroviev.

[S]aid the not entirely suppressed old Ivan, rearing his head from inside the new one, although without much confidence.

Manuscripts don't burn.

What's the use of dying in a ward surrounded by a lot of groaning and croaking incurables? Wouldn't it be much better to throw a party with that twenty-seven thousand and take poison and depart for the other world to the sound of violins, surrounded by lovely drunken girls and happy friends?

We have no idea whether there were any other strange occurences in Moscow that night, and we have no intention of trying to find out, since the time has come for us to proceed to Part Two of this true narrative. Follow me, reader!

Да, человек смертен, но это было бы ещё полбеды. Плохо то, что он иногда внезапно смертен, вот в чём фокус!

Unfortunately I cannot show it to you,' replied the master, 'because I burned it in my stove.'</br>'I'm sorry but I don't believe you,' said Woland. 'You can't have done. Manuscripts don't burn.

The tongue can conceal the truth, but the eyes never! You're asked an unexpected question, you don't even flinch, it takes just a second to get yourself under control, you know just what you have to say to hide the truth, and you speak very convincingly, and nothing in your face twitches to give you away. But the truth, alas, has been disturbed by the question, and it rises up from the depths of your soul to flicker in your eyes and all is lost.