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I'm the biggest Chekov fan - there's something that he does that not many other writers do.

I love Chekhov. I could go on all day about him.

I went to drama school in the U.K., where we did endless Chekov plays.

I love playing Chekhov. That's the hardest; that's why I love it most.

I love Paul Giamatti - God, that man is like a walking Chekhov. His connection to humanity is unbelievable, and those feelings of low self-esteem - the way that all comes together on the screen? Delicious.

Of all the writers I have read, Vladimir Nabokov has made the biggest impression on me because he, despite living through the 1917 February Revolution, forced exile amidst the anti-Semitism in Nazi Germany, the two World Wars and quite a lot of controversy, was an author who never gave up.

I love the Russians for their verve, their melancholia, their vivacity, their unpredictability, and their humour.

Nabokov, who I loved more than any other writer when I was young, had such contempt for dialogue. When I was younger, I never wrote a word of dialogue because of him. I thought it was a childish part of a novel.

Nobody writes like Nabokov; nobody ever will. What I would give to write one sentence like Vladimir!

Danny Lyon is one of my favorite photographers.