Book: Selected letters

In the meantime, my world is what it is now - to be honest, sometimes it seems to me that I do not create it, but it manifests itself through me.

It is not clear to me how, even in the Primary World, any theologian or philosopher, unless he is better informed than others about the relationship of spirit and body, can deny the possibility of reincarnation as a mode of existence inherent in certain types of rational beings.

My book is a literary work, not a historical chronicle that describes real events.

The difference between effects and real magic is as great as the difference between literature (painting, sculpture) and real life.

The main motivation of evil in my book is the desire to subjugate the free will of others.

In my book, both magic and gothic become good or evil, depending on the intentions of the one who resorts to them. What is the motive, what is the motive, such are the means at hand.

I'm not going to get into any debate about whether or not magic actually exists. However, I believe that in a literary work it may well exist.

This is a book written by a man who is dust and to dust he will return.

It may happen that creativity becomes an obsession, a painful attachment to what is created by one's own

Like any art, myth and fairy tale must contain moral and religious principles (whether true or erroneous), but they must not stick out, have the same form as in the primary, real world.

In addition to the craving for languages, from the very childhood I was attracted by myths and fairy tales, and in particular - heroic legends on the verge of a fairy tale and historical chronicles. By the way, it was not until I entered college that I finally realized that there is a strong inner connection between fairy tale and historical chronicle.

I never considered my works to be masterpieces, I never believed in their exclusivity, and even now that, to my great surprise, they have received such recognition, I still believe that some mistake has occurred, and still not too much tends to put on public display the world created by my imagination.

Perhaps the image of the spider is connected with the fact that in childhood I was bitten by a tarantula; in any case, if anyone wants to think so, I don't mind at all. I can only say that I myself don’t remember anything about it (if they didn’t tell me, I would completely forget), but I don’t feel antipathy for spiders as such, I don’t crush them and don’t trample them under my feet. On the contrary, I let out into the street those whom I find from time to time.

Due to the great popularity of The Hobbit with readers, I was required to continue. Nevertheless, I did not intend to write a continuation of the children's fairy tale at all. I wanted to write magical