Calling for an “honest sentence” is also calling for bravery. Honesty in art often means admitting what we would rather soften: pettiness, envy, tenderness, contradiction. Dostoevsky’s own novels repeatedly show characters unraveling when they lie to themselves, as in *Notes from Underground* (1864), where self-deception becomes both shield and prison.
So the quote doubles as an inner ethic. When a writer tells the truth at the outset, they signal a willingness to look directly at experience, not to manage impressions. That willingness is what sustains a long project when inspiration fades. [...]
