Chekhov understood that people are mysterious and can't be reduced to what we nowadays call 'motivation.'

One of the reasons why there are so many versions of Chekhov is that translations date in a way that the original doesn't; translations seem to be of their time.

Chekhov was capable of casually tossing off deplorable comments in his letters, combined with a very modern anger against anti-Semitism.

In Chekhov, everything blends into its opposite, just fractionally, and this is sort of unsettling. And that's why you end up 100 years later asking, 'Is that moment tragic or comic?'

Very often in Chekhov, where he exhibits a little bit of human behavior that you recognize as true, you give a little laugh. It's like a reflex.

I don't want to say he got used to it, but I think he understood this year, with his reduced role, that this is what he should be concentrating on. That doesn't mean he's not valuable.